"« 


i^^jjp^-^i-;^  y'^/'y'^ 


u 


:o«K5sii«.'i'i-i-. 


M 


^        -*         * 

.^fe-      M%         ^         »»^- 


DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 


Treasure  %oom 

UTOPIA 


^ 

^         ^ 
^ 

^         * 


•^^  ^         ^ 

■J.      -* 

f^  ^       **• 

•A  "jfr        "f^  'J*- 

..        ^        ^       ^--*^^':-^-^^^^^.-^^      ^        .- 

^  4-,        ^         -♦        --^        -^        "^---     "^        ^■ 

4<  >*  -iik         **^         ^  -ik         *•.  >fc  *^ 

*         Hk        -**         Hk         ^         ^         ^         ^  -*v 

>i<  **^         ^  -fv  ** ^  ^  if^ 

Ik  ^  ^  >  ^ 


-*=         ^.         ^         ^4. 
%--     ^       *  >^ 

•#f-     -  ^       *-       '^-' 

-^        ■■*-  >-       -*. 

'     ^v  ^-  ^  ^  •*.  '     4t 

*         ^        «J^        *        ^        -^        »f^        -^  ■       -r         **- 

*.  ^  V,:  >^  '*.  <  ■*►..  -^  ^, 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2010  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/intermereOOtayl 


INTERMBRi. 


BY 

WILLIAM 

ALEXANDER 

TAYLOR, 


GOLUMBU§,OHIO. 
1901 1902 

The  XX.  Century  Pub.  Co. 


j^a 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

WM.    A.    TAYLOR, 
1901. 


THIS  IS  THE  STRANGE  AND 
REMARKABLE  STORY,  IN  SUB- 
STANCE, AND  LARGELY  IN  DE- 
TAIL, AS  NARRATED  BY  GILES 
HENRY  ANDERTON,  JOURNAL- 
IST AND  AMERICAN  TOURIST. 


I. 

THE  TOURIST  LOST  IN  MID- 
OCEAN  IS  MYSTERIOUSLY  IN- 
TRODUCED INTO  INTERMERE, 
AND  MEETS  THE  FIRST  CITIZEN 
AND  OTHER  CHIEF  OFFICIALS. 


I. 


THE  MISTLETOE. 


THE  MISTLETOE,  staunch,  trim  and  buoy- 
ant, steamed  across  the  equator  under  the 
glare  of  a  midday  sun  from  a  fleckless  sky,  and 
began  to  ascend  toward  the  antarctic  circle. 

Three  days  later  we  came  in  sight  of  a  great 
bank  of  fog  or  mist,  which  stood  like  a  gray 
wall  of  stone  across  the  entire  horizon,  plunged 
into  it  and  the  sun  disappeared — disappeared 
forever  to  all  except  one  of  the  gay  and  care- 
less crew  and  passengers. 

For  days,  as  was  shown  by  the  ship's  chron- 
ometers, we  steamed  slowly  on  our  course,  sur- 
rounded by  an  inky  midnight,  instinct  with  an 
oppressive  and  fearsome  calm.  As  we  ap- 
proached the  fortieth  parallel  of  south  latitude 


]2  INTERMERE. 


a  remarkable  change  set  in.  The  deathly  calm 
was  suddenly  broken  by  the  rush  of  mighty 
and  boisterous  winds,  sweeping  now  from  one 
point  of  the  compass,  and  then  suddenly'  veer- 
ing to  another,  churning  up  the  waters  and 
spinning  the  Mistletoe  round  and  round  like 
a  top. 

In  the  midst  of  the  terror  and  confusion, 
heightened  by  the  unheeded  commands  of  the 
officers,  a  glittering  sheeny  bolt,  like  a  corrus- 
cating  column  of  steel,  dropped  straight  from 
the  zenith,  striking  the  gyrating  Mistletoe 
amidships. 

There  was  a  deafening  report,  the  air  was 
filled  with  serpentine  lines  of  flame,  followed 
simultaneously  by  the  dull  explosion  of  the 
boilers,  the  hissing  of  escaping  steam,  the 
groaning  of  cordage  and  machinery,  the  lurch- 
ing of  the  vessel  as  the  water  poured  in  ap- 
parently from  a  score  of  openings,  a  shudder- 
ing vibration  of  all  its  parts,  and  then,  amid 


INTERMERE.  13 


cries  and  prayers  and  imprecations,  the 
wrecked  vessel  shot  like  a  plummet  to  the 
bottom. 

I  felt  myself  being  dragged  down  to  the  im- 
measurable watery  depths,  confused  with  roar- 
ing sounds  and  oppressed  with  terrors  inde- 
scribable and  horrible.  The  descent  seemed 
miles  and  miles.  Then  I  felt  myself  slowly 
rising  toward  the  surface,  followed  by  legions 
of  submarine  monsters  of  grotesque  shapes 
and  terrifying  aspects. 

With  accelerated  motion  I  approached  the 
surface  and,  shooting  like  a  cork  above  the 
now  calm  sea,  fortunately  fell  upon  a  piece  of 
floating  wreckage.  Looking  upward  as  I  lay 
upon  it,  I  saw  the  blue  sky  and  the  brilliant 
stars  far  overhead.  The  fierce  winds  and  inky 
darkness  and  blackness  of  the  night  were  dis- 
appearing beyond  the  northeastern  horizon. 

I  tried  to  concentrate  my  scattered  thoughts 
and  piece  out  the  awful  catastrophe  that  had 


14  INTERMERE. 


befallen  the  ship  and  my  companions,  but  the 
efifort  was  too  great  a  strain  and  I  ceased  to 
think — perhaps  I  ceased  to  exist. 


I  seemed  to  be  passing  through  a  vague 
twilight  of  sentient  existence.  Thought  was 
rudimentary  with  me,  if,  indeed,  there  were 
any  thoughts.  They  were  mere  sensations, 
perhaps,  or  impressions  imperfectly  shaped, 
but  I  remember  them  now  as  being  so  delight- 
ful, that  I  prayed,  in  a  feeble  way,  that  I  might 
never  be  awakened  from  them.  And  then 
gradually  the  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  and  full 
physical  and  mental  existence  returned  to  me. 

At  length  I  was  able  to  determine  that  I  lay 
on  something  like  a  hammock  on  the  deck  of 
a  smoothly  gliding  vessel.  Turning  my  head 
first  to  the  right  and  then  to  the  left,  I  imag- 
ined that  I  was  indeed  in  Paradise,  only  the 
reality  before  me  was  so  infinitely  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  most  vivid  poetic  descriptions  I 
bad  ever  read  of  the  longed  for  heaven  of  end 


INTERMERE.  15 


less  peace  and  happiness.  But  this  could  not 
be  the  Paradise  of  the  disembodied  souls,  for 
I  realized  I  was  there  in  all  my  physicaJ 
personal  being. 

I  was  sailing  through  a  smooth,  shimmering 
sea,  thickly  studded  with  matchlessly  beautiful 
islands.  They  laiy  in  charming  profusion  and 
picturesque  irregularity  of  contour  on  the  right 
and  the  left,  each  a  distinct  type  of  beauty  and 
perfection.  I  could  make  out  houses  and  gar- 
dens and  farms  and  people  on  each  of  them. 

Looking  to  the  right  I  saw  what  appeared  to 
be  a  mainland  with  majestic  and  softly  modu- 
lated mountains  and  broad  valleys,  running 
from  the  distance  down  to  the  sands  of  the 
seashore.  Above  the  mountains  shone  the  un- 
obscured  sun,  but  not  the  burning  orb  I  had 
known  of  old  in  the  lower  latitudes.  It  kissed 
me  with  a  tenderness  that  was  entrancing, 
filling  my  weakened  frame  with  new  life. 

The  breezes  toyed  with  my  tangled  and  un- 


16  INTERMERE. 


kempt  locks,  fanned  my  brow  and  whispered 
such  things  to  me  as  did  the  zephyrs  when  I 
stood  upon  the  threshold  of  guileless  boyhood. 

Finally  I  was  able  to  frame  a  consecutive 
thought,  in  the  interrogative  form,  and  it  was 
this: 

"Where  am  I?  Is  this  the  Heaven  my 
mother  taught  me  to  seek?" 

I  had  as  yet  seen  no  one  aboard  the  ship,  or 
whatever  it  was,  although  I  had  heard  the  hum 
of  what  seemed  to  be  conversation  from  some 
point  beyond  the  line  of  vision.  Again  I  sil- 
ently repeated  my  mental  question. 

As  if  in  response  to  my  unuttered  query,  a 
being,  or  a  man,  of  striking  and  pleasing  ap- 
pearance came  to  my  side  and  laying  his  hand 
softly  on  my  forehead,  addressed  me  in  a 
tongue  at  once  familiar  but  wholly  unknown, 
as  paradoxical  as  that  may  sound. 

I  remained  silent  and  he  again  addressed  me. 

I  did  not  feel  disconcerted  or  awed  by  his 


INTERMERE.  17 


appearance  and  said:  "I  speak  French  and 
fTcrman  imperfectly;  English  with  some 
fluency." 

His  rejoinder  was  in  English:  "You  speak 
English,  but  are  not  an  Englishman  except  by 
partial  descent.  You  are  an  American.  Not 
a  native  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent, but  from  west  of  the  range  of  moun- 
tains which  separate  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
from  the  great  central  valley  of  the  continent. 
You  are  from  the  tributary  Ohio  valley,  and 
are,  therefore,  better  fitted  to  comprehend  what 
you  will  be  permitted  to  see  and  hear,  than  the 
average  habitant  of  the  eastern  seashore, 
especially  of  its  great  cities.'' 

You  can  possibly  imagine,  in  a  faint  way,  ray 
unbounded  surprise  to  be  thus  addressed  by 
one  who  was  more  than  a  stranger  to  me. 

"You  asked  yourself  two  questions.  I  will 
answer  the  first:    You  are  in  Intermere." 

"And  where  is  Inlermere?" 


18  INTERMERE. 


''It  lies  at  your  feet  and  expands  on  every 
hand  about  you.    Let  that  suffice. 

"No,  this  is  not  the  Heaven  to  which  your 
mother  taught  you  to  aspire.  It  is  a  part  of 
your  own  planet,  inhabited  by  beings  sprung 
from  the  same  parent  stock  as  yourself,  but 
differing  from  all  other  nations  and  peoples;  a 
people  who  are  many  steps  nearer  to  the 
higher  and  better  life,  and  is,  by  comparison, 
the  Paradise  or  Eden  that  masks  the  gateway 
of  the  true  Heaven,  in  a  sphere  beyond  in  the 
great  ITniverse." 

He  motioned  to  some  one,  and  two  persons 
appeared  with  refreshments. 

"Partake,"  he  said,  "and  renew  your  ex- 
hausted physical  and  mental  powers." 

The  proffered  refreshments  and  coidials 
seemed  to  be  the  acme  of  the  gustatorial 
dreams  of  my  former  life:  the  suggestion  of 
other  things,  yet  unlike  them.  After  I  had 
partaken,  a  new  life  thrilled  every  nerve  and 


INTERMERE.  19 


fibre  of  my  physical  being  and  pulsated 
through  every  mental  faculty. 

I  arose  from  my  recumbent  position  and  was 
conducted  forward  upon  the  softly  carpeted 
deck  and  presented  to  a  score  of  others  who 
received  me  with  every  token  of  marked  re- 
spect, unkempt  and  bedraggled  as  I  was.  They 
were  men  of  unusual  physique,  a  composite  of 
tlie  highest  types  of  the  human  race  I  had  ever 
seen  or  read  of.  Each  ]>ossessed  a  distinctive 
meiu  and  j)ersonality,  as  individuals,  yet  pre- 
senting a  harmonious  whole,  taken  collectively. 

Xamas,  as  I  afterward  learned  to  know  him, 
when  I  saw  him  presiding  as  First  Citizen  over 
this  wonderful  people,  said  to  his  fellows: 

"This  is  Giles  Henry  Anderton,  a  citizen  of 
the  interior  of  the  great  Republic  of  North 
America.  I  have  fathomed  him  and  know  that 
he  is  worthy  our  respect  and  considerate  treat- 
ment. He  has  dreamed  longingly  of  the  things 
whereof  we  know,  and  which  he  has  nevfM-  even 


20  INTERMERE. 


recognized  as  a  possibility.  It  will  be  our  mis- 
sion to  show  him  the  grand  possibilities  of 
human  life  before  we  restore  him  to  his  kin- 
dred and  friends. 

"Not  understajiding  that  Nature  had  lain  all 
treasures  worth  possessing  in  lavish  profusion 
at  his  feet  in  his  own  land,  and  guided  by 
merely  commercial  instincts,  he  sought  for 
paltry  gold  in  distant  lands  and  seas,  and,  es- 
caping the  vortex  of  death,  has  been  placed  in 
our  hands  for  some  great  purpose.  He  will  be 
addressed  in  the  English  tongue  until  it  is  de- 
termined whether  he  is  to  be  admitted  to  ours." 

This  was  spoken  in  a  language  absolutely 
unknown  to  me,  and  not  a  word  of  which  I  was 
capable  of  framing,  and  yet  I  understood  it  as 
fully  as  though  spoken  in  English.  So  great 
was  my  amazement  that  he  should  know  my 
nativity,  m^-^  name,  my  hopes,  my  ambitions 
and  my  purposes,  I  could  scarcely  repl}'  to  the 
salutations  extended  to  me. 


INTERMERE.  21 


''Do  not  be  surprised,"  said  Xamas,  reading 
my  inmost  thoughts,  ''at  what  I  say,  nor  need 
you  ask  how  I  became  possessed  of  your  his- 
tory. All  that  will  be  made  plain  to  you  here- 
after." 

Turning  to  one  who  stood  near,  he  said: 
"Conduct  Mr.  Andertou  to  my  apartments  and 
see  that  he  has  proper  'tendance  and  is  sup- 
plied with  suitable  clothing." 

With  that  I  was  conducted  below  to  a  charm- 
ing suite  of  apartments  lying  amidships,  bath- 
ed, was  massaged  and  shaven  by  an  attendant, 
as  lofty  of  mein  as  Xamas  himself,  and  fur- 
nished with  clothing  suitable  to  the  company 
with  which  I  was  to  mingle,  not  more  unlike 
the  workmanship  of  my  American  tailor  than 
his  would  be  unlike  the  handiwork  of  his 
French,  English  or  German  fellow-craftsmen, 
and  yet  so  unlike  all  of  them  as  to  ft  perfectly 
into  the  ensemble  of  the  habiliments  of  my  new 
friends. 


22  INTERMERE. 


The  ship,  or  Merocar,  as  I  subsequently 
learned  was  its  general  designation,  was  a  mar- 
vellous affair,  unlike  any  water  craft  I  had 
ever  seen.  Its  length  was  fully  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet,  and  its  greatest  breadth  thirty,* 
gently  sloping  both  to  stem  and  stern,  where 
it  rounded  in  perfect  curves.  The  upper,  or 
proper  deck,  extended  over  all.  The  lower 
deck  was  a  succession  of  suites  and  apart- 
ments, richly  but  artistically  furnished,  open- 
ing from  either  side  into  a  wide  and  roomy 
aisle.  All  the  work  was  so  light,  both  the 
woods,  and  the  metals,  that  it  seemed  fragile 
and  unsafe,  but  its  great  strength  was  shown 
by  the  fact  that  none  of  its  parts  yielded  to 
the  weight  or  pressure  upon  it. 

There  was  not  a  mast,  a  spar  nor  a  sail  on 
board.  The  light  and  richly  wrought  ham- 
mocks swung  on  lithe  and  polished  frames,  ap- 
parently intended  to  sustain  the  weight  of  fifty 
pounds,  yet  capable  of  sustaining  five  or  ten 


INTERMERE.  23 


times  as  much.  They  were  unprotected  by 
awnings.  Sunlight  rather  than  shade  was  ap- 
parently the  desideratum. 

In  some  unaccountable  way  the  long  and 
lithe  Merocar  was  propelled  at  any  desired 
rate  of  speed,  and  was  turned,  as  on  a  pivot, 
at  the  will  of  the  man  who  acted  as  captain, 
pilot  and  engineer.  There  was  no  steam,  no 
furnace  belching  black  volumes  of  smoke,  no 
whirr  of  machinery,  no  strain  or  creaking  as 
the  craft  shot,  sometimes  swiftly,  sometimes 
slowly,  through  the  rippling  water.  Even  mo- 
tion was  not  perceptible  to  the  physical  senses. 

The  captain-pilot-engineer  did  not  tug  at  a 
wheel  in  his  railed-in  apartment,  elevated  a  few 
feet  above  the  center  of  the  upper  deck.  He 
placed  his  hand  upon  the  table  before  him  and 
it  shot  forward  with  incredible  speed;  he 
touched  another  point  and  it  stood  still,  with- 
out jar  or  vibration.  A  movement  of  the  hand, 
and  the  prow  of  the  Merocar  swept  gracefully 


24  INTERMERE. 


from  north  to  east  in  less  than  its  length,  to 
pass  between  two  beautiful  islets  or  round 
some  sharp  promontory.  Hundreds  of  other 
Merocars,  differing  in  size  and  form,  were 
visible. 

How  they  were  propelled  was  so  incompre- 
hensible to  me  that  I  attributed  it  to  super- 
natural agencies.  I  learned  that  it  was  a  sim- 
pler process  than  the  utilization  of  oars,  or 
sails,  or  steam,  which  the  progenitors  of  these 
mariners  had  abandoned  before  the  days  of 
Tyre  and  Sidon  and  Memphis  aud  Thebes. 

Rejoining  the  company,!  endeavored  to  carry 
on  a  conversation  with  them,  but  I  fear  I  made 
little  headway,  so  deeply  was  I  absorbed  in  the 
wonderful  panorama  that  lay  before  me. 

Raising  my  eyes  from  the  shimmering,  island- 
studded  and  beautj'-bestrewn  sea  to  the  blue 
above,  I  uttered  an  ejaculation  of  surprise  at 
what  I  beheld.  There  I  saw  "the  airy  navies" 
of  which  Tennyson  had  written  under  the  spell 


INTERMERE.  25 


of  an  inspiration  which  must  have  been  wafted 
from  this  unknown  land,  but  marred  by  the 
hostile  environments  of  his  own. 

Every  quarter  of  the  heavens  disclosed  grace- 
ful barques  sailing  hither  and  thither,  passing 
and  repassing  each  other,  gathering  in  groups, 
tilled  with  people,  many  of  them  holding 
mute  communications  with  my  companions,  as 
though  friend  were  talking  with  friend,  with- 
out utterance,  sign  or  gesture. 

"1  am  beyond  the  confines  of  earth,"  I  said 
to  Xanias.  "This  is  a  higher  and  spiritual 
sphere,  and  I  am  not  Giles  Henry  Anderton, 
but  his  disembodied  spirit." 

"You  are  at  fault.  You  are  within  the  mun- 
dane sphere,  but  with  a  people  infinitely  in 
advance  of  yours — a  people  who,  by  evolution- 
ary processes,  have  unlocked  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  secrets  of  Nature  and  the  Universe, 
and  turned  them  to  ennobling  ends,  not  to 
selfish  purposes.    These  facts  will  come  to  you 


26  INTERMERE. 


in  time,  and  you  will  be  convinced. 

"See,"  he  continued,  "the  city  is  slowly  com- 
ing into  view  across  the  horizon." 

My  glance  followed  to  the  point  indicated, 
and  I  saw  a  city  of  ineffable  magnificence,  softly 
rising  from  the  bosom  of  the  deep,  as  thiough 
obedient  to  the  wand  of  a  master  magician. 

Soon  I  could  see  that  it  swept  around  the 
broad  semicircle  of  the  bay,  many  miles  in 
extent  and  artistically  perfect  in  contour,  the 
land  rising  gently  from  the  strand  into  a  grand 
and  massive  elevation,  cut  into  great  squares 
and  circles,  and  crowned  with  noble  buildings, 
great  and  small,  in  a  style  of  architecture  which 
embraced  all  the  beauties  and  none  of  the 
blemishes  of  European  and  American  crea- 
tions. It  was  the  full  and  perfect  flower  of  the 
crude  buds  of  other  lands. 

For  a  time  my  companions  remained  silent 
as  I  contemplated  the  entrancing  scene  and 
drank  in  its  beauties.  Then  Xamas  interrupt- 
ed me: 


INTERMERE.  27 


"Yesterday  the  allied  armies  of  the  Western 
Nations  entered  the  capital  of  China,  and  are 
now  bivouacked  in  the  Forbidden  City,  from 
which  the  Empress,  Emperor  and  Court  have 
fled." 

I  shook  my  head  incredulously: 

"When  I  sailed  from  New  York  six  months 
ago  there  was  no  thought  of  war  between  any 
of  the  Western  Nations  and  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire. Russia  may  have  invaded  one  of  its  prov- 
inces by  way  of  reprisal.  That  is  a  possibility." 

"Great  events  focus  and  transpire  within  six 
months.  What  I  tell  you  is  true.  The  hos- 
tile standards  of  England,  Russia,  Germany, 
France,  Japan,  and  your  own  Republic,  which 
has  departed  from  its  wise  traditions,  flout  the 
Yellow  Dragon  in  the  precincts  of  his  own  cit- 
adel and  temple.  Is  not  this  true,  Maros?" 
turning  to  one  who  looked  the  prophet  and 
seer. 

''Aye,  indeed,  and  the  best  loved  of  this  man's 


28  INTERMERE. 


kindred  fell  in  the  assault.  He  will  know  if  I 
am  permitted  to  name  him." 

"Shall  he  be  permitted?" 

''Freely." 

"Albert  Marshall,  a  sergeant  of  Marines, 
your  playmate  and  foster  brother,  the  next  be- 
loved of  your  mother,  the  son  of  her  deceased 
sister;  your  mother  reared  him  as  her  own  son, 
and  she  knows,  as  yet,  nothing  of  the  disaster 
which  has  befallen  you  nor  the  loss  of  her  fos- 
ter son.  He  was  of  your  own  age,  and  like  you 
tall,  athletic  and  vigorous,  with  fair  hair  and 
complexion  and  blue  eyes,  the  very  counterpart 
of  yourself — a  man  fit  for  a  higher  destiny 
than  butchery." 

'*0  Albert!  O  unhappy,  stricken  mother!"  I 
cried  in  agony. 

"Revered  sir,  I  believe  your  words.  They 
are  absolutely  convincing.  Tell  me  how  you 
came  into  possession  of  this  strange  informa- 
tion." 


INTERMERE.  29 


"In  time;  but  be  patient.  Lament  not  for 
the  dead;  sorrow  not  for  the  living.  We  must 
presently  debark.  Come  to  my  garden  tomor- 
row. It  lies  within  the  shadow  of  the  Temple 
of  Thought,  Memory  and  Hope.  My  home  is 
unpretentious,  but  you  will  be  welcome.  There 
is  need  that  you  should  come.  Tomorrow  your 
mother  will  be  apprised  of  the  death  of  your 
kinsman;  almost  simultaneously  will  come  ru- 
mors of  your  shipwreck.  8he  must  be  assured 
of  your  safety  within  twenty-four  hours,  if  you 
hope  to  meet  her  again." 

''But  how  can  I  com '' 

"Peace,  patience;  sufficient  unto  tomorrow 
is  the  labor  and  issue  thereof." 

The  Merocar  gently  ran  into  its  slip,  and  we 
debarked,  Xamas  carrying  me  to  his  home  in  a 
vehicle  of  strange  design  and  mysterious  power 
of  propulsion. 


II. 

XAMAS,THE  FIRCT  (  ITIZEN,  EX- 
PLAINS THE  POLITY  AND  PRIN- 
CIPLES GOVERNING  THE  GOM- 
MONWEALTH  AND  PROMOTING 
THE  INTERESTS  OF  ALL  THE 
PEOPLE  OF  INTERMERE. 


INTERMERE.  31 


II. 


THE  FIRST  CITIZEN. 


I  SHALL  SO  FAR  anticipate  as  to  say  that 
the  city  in  which  I  found  myself  was  known  as 
the  Greater  City,  in  contradistinction  of  the 
Lesser  City,  lying  at  the  opposite  end  of  the 
inland  sea  or  mere. 

This  body  of  water  extends  in  an  oval  shape 
or  form  north  and  south,  its  length  being  ap- 
proximately four  hundred  miles,  and  its  great- 
est width  at  the  latitudinal  center  two  hundred 
miles,  gradually  narrowing  toward  the  oppo- 
site extremes,  where  it  gently  expands  into 
rounded  bays,  forming  the  extended  water 
fronts  of  both  cities. 

The  Greater  City  wa.s  clearly  the  original 
seat  of  the  present  civilization,  from  which  it 


32  INTER  MERE. 


extended  southward  along  both  shores  until 
it  met  at  the  southern  apex  and  became  the 
Lesser  City.  I  was  able,  however,to  distin- 
guish but  little,  if  any,  difference  between  the 
two. 

The  twelve  hundred  miles  of  shore  line  is 
studded  with  farms,  gardens,  towns,  villages, 
hamlets,  private  residences  and  public  edifices, 
extending  over  highland  and  plain,  as  far  as  I 
was  permitted  to  see,  toward  the  outer  bound- 
aries, the  location  and  character  of  which  I 
can  not  even  conjecture. 

Many  rivers,  limpid  and  sparkling,  coming 
through  level  and  spreading  valleys,  and  from 
almost  every  point,  contribute  their  waters  to 
the  mere. 

The  current  of  the  mere  is  phenomenal — not 
violent,  but  distinctively  marked.  Twice  within 
every  twenty-four  hours  it  sweepis  entirely 
around  the  oval,  affecting  one-half  of  the  mere 
as  it  moves.    With  the  early  hours  of  the  morn- 


INTERMERE.  33 


ing  and  evening  it  sweeps  from  north  to  south 
throughout  the  eastern,  and  with  noon  and 
midnight  through  the  western  half  of  the  sea. 

This  cMurcut  may  be  described  as  anti-  or 
trans-tidal;  that  is,  the  general  water  level 
falls  or  is  lowered  on  the  side  where  the  cur- 
rent runs,  and  rises  correspondingly  in  the  op- 
posite half. 

The  effect  is  this;  From  0  a.  m.  to  12  noon 
and  from  G  p.  m.  to  midnight,  throughout  the 
eastern  half,  the  tide  runs  in  from  those  rivers 
falling  in  from  the  east,  and  correspondingly 
rises  and  moves  inland  in  those  falling  in  from 
the  west,  and  then  the  current  flows  north  on 
the  western  side  from  12  noon  to  6  p.  m.  and 
from  midnight  to  (\  a.  m.,  so  that  for  half  the 
time  the  rivers  on  either  side  ebb  or  flow  into 
the  sea,  and  for  the  other  twelve  hours  rise  and 
flow  to  the  interior,  east  or  west  as  the  case 
may  be. 

The  effect  of  this  is  singular  indeed,  or  it  was 


34  INTERMERE. 


to  me.  The  rivers  appear  to  run  inland  from 
the  sea  a  part  of  the  time,  and  then  run  from 
the  landward  into  the  sea  for  twelve  hours,  or 
an  equal  period,  while  the  sea  itself  appears 
to  be  a  subdivided  river  forever  flowing  in  an 
elongated  circle  along  the  opposite  shores. 

The  description  of  the  Egyptian  high  priest, 
carefully  guarded  by  his  successors  for  nine 
thousand  years,  then  revealed  to  Solon,  and  by 
Solon  narrated  to  Plato,  and  by  Plato  trans- 
mitted to  the  modern  world,  must  have  had  its 
basis  here.  Is  not  this  the  Atlantis  which  en- 
thralled the  Egyptian  sage,  philosopher  and 
priest  more  than  ten  c3'cles  ago? 

To  the  Egyptian  the  ever-flowing  rivers  re- 
turned to  their  common  source  through  valleys 
and  landscapes  of  ravishing  beauty,  renewing 
themselves  forever.  They  laved  the  feet  of  cit- 
ies, irrigated  the  endless  succession  of  farms, 
gardens  and  residential  demesnes,  and  mir- 
rored the  mountains,  clothed  with  perpetual 


INTERMERE.  36 


verdure  and  crowned  with  the  stately  monii- 
ments  of  genius,  wisdom,  art,  civilization, 
learning-  and  human  progress,  a  century  of 
centuries  agone. 


I  have  spoken  of  the  singular  vehicle  in 
which,  with  Xamas,  I  left  the  pier  and  ascend- 
ed the  gentle  slope  into  the  city.  It  might  be 
likened,  faintly  however,  to  the  best  types  of 
our  automobiles.  But  the  comparison  would 
be  much  like  that  between  the  ox-cart  and  the 
landau. 

It  more  resembled  a  double-seated  chair  set 
upon  several  small  elastic  wheels,  scarcely 
visible  beneath  the  rich  trappings  which 
dropped  almost  to  the  smooth  street,  as  scru- 
pulously clean  as  a  ballroom  floor. 

Xamas  pushed  a  tiny  lever,  almost  hidden  in 
the  rich  upholstery  of  the  arm-rest,  and  it 
moved  swiftly  and  noiselessly  forward  without 
jar  or  oscillation.    A  delicate  and  a  deftly  con- 


36  INTERMERE. 


cealed  spring  guided  it  along  the  graceful 
curves  of  the  streets,  or  sent  it  at  a  right  angle 
when  the  streets  crossed  at  tangents. 

An  adjustment  lowered  the  speed  to  a  stroll- 
ing pace;  another  movement  gave  a  high  speed, 
while  the  reversal  of  the  lever  brought  us  to  a 
standstill  that  I  might  silently  admire  some 
stately  architectural  pile  or  revel  in  the  con- 
templation of  some  lovely  private  home. 

As  we  journeyed  Xamas  said:  "Ask  with  all 
frankness  such  questions  as  you  desire.  Wis- 
dom is  the  child  of  patience,  so  be  neither  im- 
patient, if  the  answer  is  not  immediate,  or  if 
it  is  at  first  incomprehensible.  It  will  be  some 
time  before  your  understanding  can  grasp  all 
that  you  see  or  all  that  you  hear. 

*^Your  people  undertake  the  impossible  feat 
of  putting  a  gallon  of  grain  into  a  pint  vase. 
Result:  The  vase  is  crushed  and  broken  and 
the  grain  is  spilled  and  lost.  The  human  mind 
is  the  vase;    Knowledge    is  the    grain,  from 


INTERMERE.  37 


which  Wisdom  will  germinate.  The  vase  ex- 
pands by  a  proces  too  subtle  for  your  compre- 
hension. To  crowd  it  beyond  its  capacity  with 
the  idea  of  expa,nding  its  receptiveness  is  a 
dangerous  and  fatal  folly.  That  is  why  mental 
dwarfs  multiply  and  mental  giants  diminish 
in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  your  people. 
Two  things  are  uppermost  in  your  mind: 

"First,  you  believe  you  are  in  a  supernatural 
sphere  and  surrounded  by  a  supernatural  peo- 
ple. In  this  you  are  absolutely  at  fault.  Ac- 
cept this  assurance  without  reservation.  You 
will  tarry  with  us  long  enough  to  fully  com- 
prehend that  fact.  You  will  see  nothing  dur- 
ing your  stay  that  can  not  be  accounted  for  on 
natural  and  scientilic  grounds. 

"Second,  you  are  consumed  with  curiosity  to 
know  how  I  propel  this  Medocar  and  make  it 
obey  my  every  wish,  so  to  speak.  The  full  ex- 
planation of  that  I  shall  delegate  to  another, 
who  will  acquaint  you  with  our  mechanisms 


38  INTERMERE. 


and  the  principle  that  moves  them. 

''When  you  have  patiently  and  intelligently 
listened  to  him  you  will  know  that  we  have 
achieved  what  your  wisest  and  deepest  and 
least  appreciated  thinkers  have  but  vaguely 
dreamed  of  and  hoped  for  during  long  and  in- 
termittent periods.  But  here  we  are  at  my 
residence.  Let  us  enter  and  I  will  introduce 
3'ou  to  my  family  and  friends." 

The  Medocar  halted  with  the  last  word  in 
front  of  a  two-storied,  many-gabled  house  with 
broad  verandas,  situated  in  the  center  of  spa- 
cious grounds,  beautified  with  trees  and  shrubs 
and  flowers  and  bubbling  fountains. 

Ushering  me  into  a  spacious  reception  hall, 
he  presented  me  to  his  wife  and  children — 
grown-up  sons  and  daughters — and  then  to  a 
number  of  men  and  women  who  had  called 
to  greet  him,  some  on  social  affairs  and  some 
on  matters  of  public  business,  concluding  with: 
"Mr.  Anderton  is  a  castawav  from  the  other 


INTERMERE.  39 


side  of  the  world,  who  is  entitled  to  our  sym- 
pathy and  care." 

If  my  newly  made  acquaintances  were  curi- 
ous as  to  my  being,  personality  and  history, 
they  had  masterful  control  of  their  feelings. 
In  all  things  they  treated  me  with  the  most  re- 
fined courtesy  and  gentle  consideration.  They 
did  not  embarrass  me  with  expressions  of  pity 
or  consolotary  suggestions.  ' 

They  addressed  me  in  my  own  language, 
made  me  feel  that  I  was  welcome  to  their  soci- 
ety. Each  extended  an  invitation  to  me  to 
visit  them  at  their  homes,  some  of  them  in 
distant  provinces,  and  these  invitations  were 
gratefully  accepted.  There  could  be  no  mis- 
taking the  deep  sincerity  they  implied. 

After  an  hour's  pleasant  conversation  on 
many  and  varied  subjects  with  my  host  and 
his  guests,  Xamas  led  me  to  a  suite  of  apart- 
ments intended  for  my  use,  and  said: 

"Attendants  will  provide  you  with  refresh- 


40  INTERMERE. 


ments  and  ascertain  your  every  want.  Rest 
and  fully  recuperate.  Later  in  the  day  I  shall 
explain  to  you  the  polity  of  our  Commonwealth, 
in  which  I  perceive  you  are  deeply  interested.'' 
What  a  remarkable  man!  He  seemed  to  read 
my  inmost  thoughts. 


As  the  sun  Mas  hanging  like  a  softly  beam- 
ing lamp  above  a  c-one-like  mountain  beyond 
the  western  line  of  the  Greater  City,  Xamas 
and  I  were  alone  upon  an  open  veranda,  over- 
grown with  clambering  vines  of  many  kinds 
in  full  bloom,  radiant  with  exquisite  colors  and 
shades.    He  abruptly  said  to  me : 

"This  Comonwealth  is  a  pure  democracy. 
Titles  and  offices  confer  no  merely  meretricious 
distinctions.  They  temporarily  impose  addi- 
tional responsibilities,  duties  and  burdens;  the 
chief  distinction  of  the  citizen  is  conferred  by 
labor,  for  labor  is  honorable  and  praiseworthy 
above  all  things  else.     The  second  is  justice. 


INTERMERE.  41 


When  and  where  all  men  labor  and  all  men  are 
just,  there  can  be  no  wrong,  no  sin,  no  evil. 
AVhere  there  is  labor  and  not  justice,  the  strong 
enjoy,  the  weak  suffer  and  endure,  opulence 
flourishes  for  the  few,  pain  and  poverty  afflict 
the  many.  Where  there  is  neither  labor  nor 
justice,  where  might  makes  right,  barbarism 
in  its  worst  form  curses  the  land. 

"The  ascent  froui  the  third  condition  to  the 
first  is  a  highway  leading  through  the  second, 
where  labor  is  oppressed  and  justice  is  a  stran- 
ger, until  at  last  justice  and  labor  join  hands 
and  produce  a  happy  and  a  great  people.  I 
touch  only  on  the  three  cardinal  points.  The 
process  of  ascent  is  slow  and  purely  evolution- 
ary— an  evolution  that  constantly  conforms 
itself  to  ever-changing  environments. 

"Your  own  so-called  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, which  so  many  of  your  people  do  not 
care  to  comprehend,  was  drawn  from  the  key- 
stone of  our  own  national  arch — Human  Equal- 


42  INTERMERE. 


ity,  the  climax  of  human  civilization  and  hap- 
pinesH. 

''Thousands  of  years  before  the  feet  of  the 
more  modern  Europeans  trode  the  soil  of  your 
continent  we  had  reached  this  point,  and  dis- 
covered that  we  had  but  reached  the  initial 
period  of  our  usefulness  and  higher  destiny. 

"It  required  centuries  to  expel  first  the  ani- 
mal instincts,  and  then  the  barbarian  nature 
from  our  race,  not  by  savage  repression  and 
ruthless  aggression  and  slaughter,  but  by  the 
study  and  application  of  the  laws  of  Nature 
and  the  Universe,  which  at  last  ultimated  in 
the  principle  and  entity  of  Brotherhood  and 
the  equality  of  all  men — not  equality  of  stat- 
ure, mental  equipment  or  material  endowment, 
but  the  equality  of  coiiimon  rights  and  com- 
mon opportunities.  Labor  and  Justice  main- 
tain and  preserve  this  eiiuality  and  Brother- 
hood. 

''Thousands  of  years  before  Magna  Charta 


INTERMERE.  43 


we  had  founded  our  Commonwealtli  on  the 
gieat  principles  of  human  equality  and  the 
right  of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  rational 
hapi)iuess,  and  my  ancestors,  comprehending 
the  profound  laws  of  Nature  unknown  to  yours, 
wafted  to  them  these  precious  seed,  trusting 
that  they  would  fall  on  genial  and  generous 
soil,  and  the  inspiration  thus  transmitted 
through  the  agency  of  our  progenitors  was  in- 
scribed by  yours  upon  rescript  of  your  national 
autonomy. 

"Its  growth,  once  so  promising,  has  become 
painful  and  pitiable.  The  upas  of  human  greed 
and  selfishness  withers  it,  and  the  prophecy  of 
bloom  and  fruitage  is  unfulfilled.  The  animal 
instinct  and  the  barbarous  appetite  which 
reaches  after  the  gaud  and  tinsel  of  excessive 
wealth  and  accumulation,  the  two  aggressive 
forms  of  selfishness  combined  in  one,  hold  civ- 
ilization and  human  progress  in  check,  and 
may  in  your  case,  as  in  a  thousand  others,  lead 


44  INTERMERE. 


back  to  the  fen  and  morass  of  primal  bar- 
barism. 

""No,  this  is  not  tlie  Paradise  of  Socialism,  as 
you  call  it/'  said  he,  interpreting  the  thread  of 
my  thought.  ''That  is  but  an  idle  dream,  the 
recrudescence  of  primal,  undeveloped  and  un- 
desirable conditions,  which  occasionally  flashes 
through  irresolute  minds,  unfitted  to  solve  the 
great  problem  of  human  existence  and  happi- 
ness. 

"This  is  the  laud  of  absolute  individuality 
as  well  as  absolute  equality.  Every  man  who 
reaches  maturity  becomes  the  individual  owner 
of  property  in  one  or  more  of  its  forms,  the 
foundation  being  the  soil  for  residence  or  pro- 
ductive purposes,  or  both,  at  his  option.  All 
lands  are  subject  to  individual  ownership, 
within  clearly  defined  limits,  the  publi<'  do- 
main being  held  in  reserve  to  meet  new  de- 
mands of  increasing  population.  It  is  the 
common  property  of  all  until  it  passes  into 


INTERMERE.  45 


individual  ownership,  to  be  used  for  agricultu- 
ral or  other  purposes,  under  fixed  rules,  a  spe- 
cilif  proportion  of  the  product,  or  its  equiva- 
lent, being  turned  into  the  common  treasury, 
to  prosecute  public  improvements  and  for  oth- 
er public  purposes. 

"This  stands  in  lieu  of  taxation  in  other 
countries,  and  it  is  only  on  rare  occasions  that 
it  is  necessaji'y  to  supplement  it  v>ith  a  direct 
tax  on  the  people,  except  as  to  the  municipal 
and  provincial  taxes  foi"  local  purposes,  in 
which  case  each  man  of  mature  age,  or  twenty- 
iive  years,  pays  the  one  hundredth  part  of  his 
earnings  monthly  into  the  treasury,  the  sum 
thus  paid  being  evenly  divided  between  the 
treasuries  of  the  province  and  municii)al  di- 
vision. When  a  surjdus  ecjual  to  the  previous 
year's  exi)enditures  accumu]at(^s  this  tax  is  re- 
mitted for  the  ensuing  year. 

"A  man  may  ov^ii  a  liouu-  and  a  separate 
farm  or  garden,  or  business  or  manufacturing 


46  INTERMERE. 


site;  nor  may  he  engage  in  more  than  one  busi- 
ness or  employment,  except  the  public  service, 
at  the  same  time.  He  may  change  from  one 
line  of  business  to  another,  but  may  not  buy 
or  sell  real  estate  for  mere  speculation.  He 
may  not  acquire  property  other  than  his  earn- 
ings until  he  reaches  maturity,  and  designs  to 
marry  and  become  the  head  of  a  family.  If 
his  intent  fail,  or  remains  unfulfilled  for  three 
years,  the  home  thus  acquired  becomes  public 
property,  and  ma}'  be  sold  to  another  who  as- 
sumes the  marital  relation,  and  the  proceeds 
divided  equally  between  the  municipal  treas- 
ury or  bank  and  the  former  owner. 

''Residences  may  be  exchanged,  as  may 
farms,  gardens,  business  sites  and  factories, 
including  the  line  of  business  or  manufactur- 
ing, but  neither  may  be  alienated  by  the  owner, 
except  with  the  approval  of  the  Custodian  of 
the  Municipality  upon  a  satisfactory  showing 
of  the  reasons  therefor. 


INTERMERE.  47 


"All  persons  of  both  sexes  must  take  up  an 
occupation  at  the  age  of  twenty,  and  continue 
therein,  or  in  some  other  occupation,  until  sixty 
years  of  age,  unless  incapacitated,  and  deposit 
in  the  municipal  bank  or  treasury  at  least  one- 
twentieth  of  their  monthly  earnings.  At  sixty 
they  nuiy  retire  from  active  life,  and  their  ac- 
cumulations are  subject  to  their  wants  and  de- 
mands under  salutary  rules.  The  residue,  along 
with  their  other  personal  property,  is  distrib- 
uted pro  rata  among  their  direct  descendants, 
and  if  there  be  none,  it  is  turned  into  the  gen- 
eral treasury  of  the  Commonwealth. 

"Women  are  entitled  to  their  earnings,  but 
may  not  own  real  estate,  the  policy  being  that 
men  shall  be  the  home-makers  and  women  the 
home-keepers.  The  wife  is  entitled  to  the  pre- 
vailing wage  from  her  husband  for  attending 
to  his  household  affairs,  in  addition  to  the  oth- 
er provisions  for  household  matters  and  (jcono- 
mies  which  he  must  make. 


48  INTERMERE. 


"Under  our  system  there  is  neither  opulence 
nor  poverty  in  the  land.  Great  wealth  has  no 
existence  with  us,  and  therefore  has  no  allure- 
ments. Charity  is  not  a  gaunt  pack-horse,  over- 
loaded with  offerings  which  come  after  the 
eleventh  hour.  The  equality  of  opportunity 
closes  every  inlet  to  the  wolves  of  Hunger  and 
Poverty  which  ravage  other  lands  amid  the 
riotous  revelry  of  the  unjustly  opulent.  We 
have  had,  at  intervals,  persons  who  rebelled, 
through  recurrent  heredity  perhaps,  against 
our  admirable  system,  and  to  them  we  admin- 
ister lex  dernier — they  are  transported  to  some 
other  land,  by  methods  known  only  to  our- 
selves, there  to  mingle  with  a  new  people,  with 
but  a  faint  conception  of  their  nativity.  They 
constitute  those  mysterious  beings  found  in  all 
other  countries,  whose  origin  is  forever  hidden, 
and  as  a  rule  they  are  excellent  and  strangely 
wise  citizens,  for  they  are  permitted  to  carry 
with  them  much  of  the  knowledge,  with  some 


INTERMERE.  49 


of  llio  wisdom,  of  their  ancestry." 

I  shall  abbreviate  much  that  Xamas  gave  in 
great  detail.  From  him  I  learned  that  every 
male  is  entitled  to  participate  in  all  public  af- 
fairs, including  the  right  of  franchise.  All  are 
eligible  to  office.  The  Commonwealth  is  com- 
posed of  twenty-four  provinces,  each  province 
being  composed  of  twelve  municipal  divisions. 

The  elective  officers  are,  in  their  order: 
1.  First  Citizen  ol  the  Commouwealth.  '2.  Chief 
Citizen  of  the  Province.  8.  Custodian  of  the 
Municipality. 

The  First  Citizen  is  the  executive  head  of 
the  Commonwealth,  serves  but  a  single  year, 
and  is  not  eligible  to  re-election.  The  Chief 
Citizens,  or  executives  of  the  provinces,  con- 
stitute his  Board  of  Counselors  to  determine 
all  matters  affecting  the  public  welfare  and 
to  select  the  various  Curators  of  the  divisional 
interests  of  the  entire  Commonwealth.  They 
meet  to  perform  these  duties  twice  each  year, 


50  INTERMERE. 


alternating  between  the  Greater  and  Lesser 

Cities. 

The  Chief  Citizens  are  the  executive  heads 
of  the  Provinces,  the  Custodians  of  the  Munic- 
ipalities constituting  their  respective  Boards 
of  Counsellors,  They,  too,  meet  twice  each 
year  to  consider  and  determine  matters  of 
provincial  interest,  and  to  decide  all  questions 
of  difference  which  may  come  up  from  the 
Municipalities.  Their  tenure  of  office  is  two 
years,  and  they  are  not  eligible  to  re-election. 

The  Custodians  are  the  sole  heads  of  the 
Municipalities,  and  decide  all  questions  arising 
therein,  and  appeal  lies  from  their  decisions 
to  the  Provincial  Board  of  Counsellors,  who 
determine  the  question  finally.  They  hold  the 
oflBce  three  years,  and  may  not  be  re-elected. 
The  above  officials  appoint  all  the  necessary 
clerical  and  other  assistants  necessary  to  carry 
out  the  duties  imposed  on  them. 

None  of  the  elective  officers  receive  salaries, 


INTERMERE.  51 


but  are  allowed  out  of  their  respective  treas- 
uries 20  media  f)er  day  for  all  necessary  ex- 
penses. 

The  media  is  equivalent  to  20  cents  Ameri- 
can currency,  and  is  the  unit  of  exchange.  It 
is  divided  inio  four  tMjua!  i)ails,  (he  coin  being 
designated  quatro,  while  a  third  coin,  equiva- 
lent to  5  media,  is  denominated  cinque,  so 
that  the  three  coins  are  (luatro,  silver;  media, 
gold;  and  cinque,  gold  and  i)latinum  in  equal 
parts,  of  nearly  equal  size  and  weight,  repre- 
senting live,  twenty,  and  one  hundred  cents  of 
our  currency,  and  nearly  the  size  of  an  Ameri- 
can quarter-dollar. 

Twenty  media  is  the  wage  of  the  master 
artisan,  and  15  media  the  wage  of  all  other 
males.  Females  receive  a  wage  of  from  8  to  15 
media.  The  nuister  artisan's  wage  is  the  com- 
pensation of  all  official  assistants  in  whatever 
capacity,  as  well  as  the  expense  allowance  of 
the  actual  officials. 


52  INTERMERE. 


In  addition  to  the  above  officials  of  the  Com- 
monwealth there  are:  Curator  of  Revenues; 
Curator  of  Works  and  Politj';  Curator  of 
Ivearning  and  Progress;  Curator  of  Scientific 
Research  and  Application,  and  Curator  of  Use- 
ful Mechanical  Devices.  Their  duties  are  sug- 
gested by  their  titles.  They  receive  the  ex- 
pense allowance,  no  salaries,  are  chosen  for 
terms  of  stven  years,  ineligible  to  a  second 
term,  by  the  First  Citizen  and  his  Counsellors, 
and  appoint  their  own  subordinates  and  as- 
sistants. 

There  is  a  Curator  of  Revenue  appointed  by 
the  Chief  Citizen  of  each  Province  to  care  for 
the  provincial,  and  by  the  Municipal  Custo- 
dian to  care  for  the  Municipal  revenues. 

The  marriageable  age  of  men  is  from  25  to 
30,  and  women  from  20  to  25.  The  offspring 
of  the  mariage  relation  varies  from  two  to  six, 
seldom  less  than  two,  or  more  than  six,  the 
average  being  four,  hence  population  increases 


INTERMERE.  53 


slowly,  while  the  great  majoritiy  live  from  80 
to  100  years,  retaining  both  ])hysi(al  and  men- 
tal faculties  to  the  last. 

"There  is  no  mercenary  incentive  to  hold 
oflflce,"  said  Xamas,  "and  it  is  absolutely  open 
to  all,  and  men  leave  it,  not  with  regret,  but 
with  the  consciousness  of  having  performed 
a  necessary  duty  and  service.  Three  months 
hence  I  will  leave  the  chief  office  of  the  State, 
and  resume  my  occupation  as  mechanical  en- 
gineer under  one  with,  whom  I  have  been  for 
a  score  or  more  of  j^ears.  He  is  now  my  Sec- 
retary, but  that  is  nothing  unusual.  It  is  a 
leading  part  of  our  history, 

''But  it  is  time  for  rest.  You  have  an  im- 
portant engagement  with  Maros,  our  Curator 
of  Scientific  Research  and  Application,  to 
morrow   morning,  and  he  exacts  promptitude." 


III. 

MAROS  PLACES  ANDERTON  IN 
COMMUNICATION  WITH  HIS 
MOTHER,  AND  DISSIPATES  HIS 
SUPERSTITIOUS  IDEAS  AND 
OTHERWISE  ENLIGHTENS  HIM 
AS  TO  THE  POSSIBILITIES  OF 
SCIENCE. 


INTERMERE. 


III. 


A  DAY  WITH  MAROS. 


I  CALLED  ON  MAROS,  the  Curator  of  Sci- 
entfir  Research  and  Application,  as  per  ap- 
pointment, and  found  him  surrounded  with 
everything  calculated  to  contribute  to  the  en- 
joyments of  earthly  existence.  His  residence 
differed  in  many  respects  from  that  of  Xamas. 
All  its  appointments  and  environments  were 
in  the  most  exquisite  taste.  But  this  may  be 
said,  once  for  all,  of  every  i  rivate  residence 
and  public  edifice  in  Intermere.  The  taste  of 
architects  and  occupants  differed,  but  all  were 
on  lines  of  beauty,  comfort  and  convenience. 

There  is  no  luxury  in  Intermere,  as  we  use 
the  term.  Luxury  is  a  merely  comparative 
term  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  distiuguishing 


56  INTERMERE. 


thiose  who  have  much  from  those  who  have 
little  or  nothing.  Here  every  rational  taste 
is  gratified  in  all  particulars.  The  people  have 
clearly  discovered  the  hidden  springs  of  Na- 
ture's kindly  intentions  toward  man,  and  util- 
ize them  at  individual  and  collective  will. 

''You  are  prompt,"  said  Maros,  seating  me 
in  his  study.  "Let  us  proceed  with  the  mat- 
ter in  which  you  are  interested." 

He  placed  before  me  a  perfectly  drawn  map 
of  a  section  of  the  United  States,  embracing 
the  place  of  my  nativity,  and  asked  me  to  point 
out  the  exact  vicinity  of  my  mother's  home.  I 
found  it  readily. 

"The  point  you  now  occupy  is  the  lineal  op- 
posite. Tuin  to  the  point,  or  direction,  you 
have  designated,  and  direct  your  concentrated 
thought  there.  If  a  responsive  impression 
comes  to  you,  communicate  its  purport  to  me." 

I  sat  in  silent  thought  a  few  mouients,  Ma- 
ros closely  regarding  me. 


INTERMERE.  57 


-I  am  impressed  that  my  mother  is  pros- 
trated with  grief;  that  she  has  just  learned  of 
the  death  of  my  kinsman;  that  rumors  of  the 
loss  of  the  Mistletoe  have  reached  her,  being 
first  cabled  from  Singapore  to  New  York,  and 
from  thence  transmitted  to  the  press,  and  that 
she  is  impressed  with  the  belief  that  I,  too,  am 
dead.  I  fear  that  she  will  not  survive  the  dou- 
ble shock." 

"Frame  such  a  thought  as  you  would  wish 
impressed  upon  yonr  mother's  consciousness 
and  faith,  and  tell  me  what  follows." 

This  is  the  thought  I  framed:  "Mother,  I  am 
alive  and  well  in  an  unknown  land,  surrounded 
by  kind  friends,  and  will  ere  long  return  to 

you." 

Later  to  Maros:  "I  am  convinced.  My  moth- 
er has  pai-tially  recovered  from  the  shock.  My 
death  would  have  been  the  fatal  blow.  She 
smiles  with  pious  resignation,  through  the 
tempest  of  hier  grief,  and  extends  her  arms  as 


58  INTERMERE. 


if  to  embrace  me.  This,  however,  is  wholly  an 
impression;  I  do  not  see  or  hear  her,  but  we 
seem  to  stand  face  to  face,  and  both  realize  it." 

"Give  yourself  no  further  concern,  nor  seek 
further  communication  with  her  until  you 
meet  her  in  person.  She  knows  you  are  alive 
and  will  return  to  her.  Nothing  she  will  hear 
will  change  that  belief." 

"Tell  me  by  what  divine  or  celestial  power 
I  am  thus  enabled  to  project  my  thoughts 
across  unknown  seas  and  continents,  and  re- 
ceive responsive  thoughts.  Only  supernatural 
agencies  could  accomplish  this." 

"You  have  what  you  call  the  telephone?" 

"Yes." 

"You  communicate  alike  with  friends  and 
strangers  hundreds  of  miles  distant  in  an  ordi- 
nary tone  of  voice?" 

"Yes." 

"Is  that  supernatural?" 

"No;  it  is  the  result  of  scientific  achievement 


INTERMERE.  59 


and  natural  phenomena." 

-Would  one,  coming  out  of  the  depths  of  ab- 
solute ignorance  of  scientific  achievement,  as 
you  call  it,  regard  it  as  a  supernatural 
agency?" 

-He  undouotedly  would." 
''What  would  you  think  of  his  conclusion?" 
••That  it  was  the  result  of  superstition." 
"And  yet  you  who  have  just  stepped  out  of 
the  dawn  into  the  full  day;  you  who  have  trans- 
mitted uttered  thoughts  to  remote  distances 
through  a  coarse  steel  or  copper  wire  and  re- 
ceived other  uttered  thoughts  in  return,  re- 
gard with  superstitious  awe,  as  supernatural, 
what  you  have  just  experienced.    W^herein  do 
you  differ  from  the  untutored  barbarian?" 
I  sat  in  silence. 

•The  telephone  wire  is  to  the  thread  of  sen- 
tient thought  which  may  span  the  universe 
itself,  what  the  horseback  mail-rider  is  to  your 
modern  methods  of  communication — what  the 


60  INTERMERE. 


earliest  dawn  is  to  the  full  day." 

Maros  explained  at  full  length  how  he  be- 
came possessed  of  the  knowledge  of  my  iden- 
tity, family  connections  and  my  misfortunes, 
Hunimiug  up: 

"When  you  were  found  in  the  remote  and 
outer  ocean  and  brought  within  the  precincts 
of  Intermere,  you  were  physically  unconscious, 
but  still  possessing  partially  dormant  mental 
faculties;  that  is,  you  continued  to  think  feebly 
and  intermittently.  We  traced  your  two  in- 
termittent lines  of  thought  to  your  mother  in 
America,  and  to,  or  rather  toward,  your  kins- 
nuin  at  some  unknown  point.  Tracing  again 
to  your  parent  we  learned  that  Marshall  had 
accompanied  the  American  expeition  to  China 
from  Manila.  Following  this  clew,  we  ascer- 
tained that  he  had  been  killed,  and  that  that 
fact  would  reach  his  home  in  due  course,  as 
well  as  the  fact  that  information  of  the  loss 
of    your  ship  would    reach  America    almost 


INTERMERE.  61 


simultaneously.  What  your  mother  now  re- 
gards as  premonitions  of  impending  evil  or 
misfortunes  were  communications  with  her 
consciousness,  far  more  refined  and  perfect 
than  the  subsequent  cable  communications, 
but  quite  as  natural,  and  in  no  sense  super- 
natural." 

"This  is  indeed  amazing!"  I  exclaimed. 

He  further  said  thai  this  was  an  individual 
case  and  purely  the  result  of  my  condition. 
"We  do  not  seek,  as  a  rule,  knowledge  of  indi- 
vidualities in  the  outside  world,  but  confine 
(■•ur  inquiries  to  matters  of  general  moment. 
W'v  know  of  the  steps  of  progress,  retrogres- 
sion, of  savagery  and  butchery  and  wrong  and 
oppression  which  dominate  an  embryotic  civili- 
zation. Amuse  yourself  for  a  time  with  the 
pictures  .md  tapestries,  and  I  will  give  you  a 
record  of  the  outer  world's  important  matters 
of  yesterday." 

He  opened  a  cabinet,  and  assumed  the  niein 


62  INTERMERE. 


of  expectant  inquiry  and  meditation.  Soon 
liis  hands  began  to  move  with  rhythmic  rapid- 
ity over  the  curiously  inlaid  center  of  the  flat 
surface  of  the  open  cabinet.  At  the  end  of  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes  his  manipulations  ceased, 
a  compartment  above  noiselessly  opened,  and 
eight  beautifully  printed  pages,  four  by  six 
inches,  bound  in  the  form  of  a  booklet,  fell 
ujton  the  table. 

It  was  printed  in  characters  more  gi'aceful 
than  our  own  Roman  letters,  from  which  they 
might  have  been  evolved,  or  the  Roman  Alpha- 
bet might  have  deteriorated  from  what  ap- 
peared before  me.  The  English  language  was 
not  used,  and  yet  I  could  readily  read  and 
comprehend  the  lines.  The  pages  before  me 
comjtrised  a  compendium  of  yesterday's  doings 
of  the  entire  world,  and  included  a  note  of  my 
own  cajse. 

They  told  of  all  the  military  operations  in 
China,  in  the  Philippines,   in   South    Africa, 


INTERMERE.  63 


in  the  far  East  and  in  the  remote  West;  of 
labor  troubles  in  the  mining  districts  of  Amer- 
ica; the  strike  of  the  textile  operatives  on  our 
Atlantic  border;  the  unrest  of  the  Finns  and 
Slavs;  of  plots  and  counterplots,  and  political 
assassination  and  revolution,  attempted  or  ac- 
complished, and  the  full  catalogue  of  such  hap- 
penings, with  now  and  then  a  flash  of  loftier 
Mvilization. 

^'What  you  read  is  being  reproduced  in  ev- 
ery divisional  municipality  of  the  Common- 
wealth, with  such  a  number  T)f  instantaneous 
duplications  as  may  be  required  for  the  pe- 
rusal and  study  of  all  who  desire  to  compare 
tinseled  and  ornamented  barbarism  with  true 
civilization. 

"Selfishness,  oppression,  slaughter,  pride, 
coufiucst,  greed,  vanity,  self-adulation  and 
base  passions  make  up  ninety-nine  one-hun- 
dr(>dths  of  this  recoid.  What  a  comuicntary 
on  such  humanity!     To  it  love,  brotherhood 


64  INTERMERE. 


aud  mutual  helpfulness  are  too  trivial  for  se- 
rious consideration. 

"The  nations  and  their  rulers,  differing 
somewhat  as  to  degree,  stand  for  organized 
and  dominant  wrong,  based  primai'ily  on  self- 
ishness— the  exact  reverse  of  the  conditions 
that  should  exist." 

"This,"  said  I,  still  couteiiiplating  the  pages, 
"compares  with  our  newspapers." 

"As  two  objects  may  compare  with  each 
other  as  to  bulk  or  form,  but  iu  no  other  re- 
spect. This  is  to  promote  wisdom.  The  news- 
paper to  feed  vicious  or  depraved  appetite,  as 
well  as  to  conveA'  useful  information.  This  is 
the  cold,  colorless,  passionless  record  of  facts 
and  information,  from  which  knowledge  and 
wisdom  may  be  deduced  to  some  extent.  Your 
newspaper  is  the  opposite,  taken  iu  its  entire- 
ty. It  consists  of  the  inextricable  mingling 
together  of  the  good  and  the  bad,  of  the  useful 
and  the  useless,  and  the  elevating  and  the  de- 


INTERMERE.  65 


grading,  the  latter  always  in  the  ascendant. 

"It  foments  discord  instead  of  promoting 
profitable  discussion,  which  is  the  bridle-path 
leading-  into  the  highway  of  wisdom.  It  is  built 
upon  the  cornerstone  of  selfishness,  the  other 
name  of  commercialism,  and  is  thoroughly  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  of  greed. 

"It  caters  to  the  public  demand  regardless 
of  the  spirit  or  the  depra\'ity  behind  it.  'Qua- 
trol  Quatrol  Quatrol'  is  the  burden  of  its  cry, 
and  for  (piatro  it  is  willing  to  lead  the  world 
forward  or  backward,  as  the  case  may  be.  It 
has  been  growing  in  stature  and  retrogiading 
in  usefulness  for  fifty  years  throughout  the 
world,  in  all  save  increasing  facilities,  and 
avidity  for  pandering  to  the  worst  and  most 
uncivilized  propensities  of  mankind,  and  it 
will  probably  continue  to  grow  worse  for  a 
century  to  come. 

"Fifty  year»  ago  it  was  blindly  controver- 
sial, but  there  was  enough  of  reason  in  its  dis- 


66  INTERMERE. 


cussions  to  give  Lope  for  the  future.  Now  it  is 
a  mere  mental  aud  moral  refuse  oar,  aud  its  so- 
called  religious  form  is  devoted  only  to  a  more 
refined  class  of  refuse,  if  that  expression  is 
allowable. 

''As  a  whole,  it  represents  classes  and  not 
the  whole  community;  prejudices,  and  not 
principles;  it  advocates  selfish,  not  general  in- 
terests; it  panders  to  petty  jealousies;  it  in- 
dulges in  tittle-tattle  in  mere  wantonness,  and 
has  no  aim  save  the  grossly  materialistic." 

I  winced  under  his  fierce  arraignment  and 
invective,  for  I  am  a.  newspaper  man  myself. 

"I  know  that  I  have  touched  you  in  a  sensi- 
tive spot,  but  I  speak  of  the  newspaper  in  a 
general  sense.  There  are  worthy  exceptions, 
despite  all  the  untoward  environments;  but, 
unfortunatly,  their  influence  is  limited.  Your 
masses  read  and  re-read  accounts  of  how  two 
beings  beat  each  other  out  of  human  sem- 
blance on  a  wager,  and  pass,  unread  and  un- 


INTERMERE.  67 


noticed,  tbo  best  thoughts  of  voiii-  greatest 
scientists  and  piofoiindest  thinkers.  It  is  not 
tlie  canaille  Avho  do  this  alone,  but  jour  states- 
men and  rulers,  men  of  large  affairs  and  men 
of  the  learned  professions." 

1  turned  the  conversation,  saying: 

"It  is  incomprehensible  to  me  how  you  pro- 
duced this  record  of  events  in  so  short  a  time 
find  without  apparent  mechanical  or  physical 
effort." 

"Doubtless,  but  not  more  incomprehensible 
to  you  than  your  linotype  machines  and  per- 
fecting press  would  have  been  to  Gutteuberg. 
And  your  discoveries  and  inventions  would  be 
no  more  incomprehensible  to  him  than  would 
his  types  and  crude  niultiplying  press  be  to 
the  papyrus  wriiers,  scriveners  and  hiero- 
giyphants  of  the  earlier  world. 

"The  transition  from  the  work  of  the  papy- 
riaus  to  the  achievements  of  the  Intermereans 
is  the  i-esult  of  that  evohition  known  as  scien- 


68  INTERMERE. 


tific  research  into  Nature's  beneficence,  in 
which  mechanical  invention  is  a  mere  incident, 
and  its  application  to  a  high,  unselfish  and 
noble  purpose,  instead  of  selfish,  base  and 
ignoble  ends. 

''We  had  outstripped  your  present  ideals  ages 
before  the  Chinese  began  block  printing,  or 
Guttenberg  fashioned  his  types  and  press.  Both 
these,  as  well  as  your  own  advanced  mechan- 
ism, as  well  as  your  every  other  great  achieve- 
ment in  science  and  research,  were  the  result 
of  the  thought-seed  sown  or  diffused  from  this 
land,  but  which  fell  on  absolutely  barren  soil, 
or  only  grew  in  puny  or  defective  forms,  far 
short  of  ripening  or  maturity. 

"Your  Franklin  comprehended  the  supreme 
and  all-pervading  power  and  genius  of  the 
Universe,  the  knowledge  of  and  the  po\\(>r  1o 
utilize  which  makes  man  godlike,  but  the 
dense  ignorance  and  gross  materialism  of  his 
day  prevented  him  from  enlightening  his 
people. 


INTERMERE.  69 


"Your  Morse  concevived  and  executed  the 
scheme  of  telegraphic  siguals  cycles  after  we 
had  discai'ded  it. 

"Your  nameless  and  unknown  discoverers, 
whose  weak  but  apprehending  genius  was  util- 
ized by  Bell,  gave  you  the  telephone  ages  after 
it  had  been  supplanted  here  by  our  more  near- 
ly perfect  system  of  intelligent  communica- 
tion with  the  entire  terrestrial  world,  and  we 
are  now  exploring,  with  it,  the  adjacent  sys- 
tems of  the  Universe  with  promising  results. 

"Your  Edison  and  other  electrical  discover^ 
ers  are  more  than  a  cycle  behind  us,  and  have 
as  yet  but  touched  the  outer  surface  of  the 
great  secret.  To  them  and  to  others  the  cur- 
rent of  the  Universe  is  a  constant  menace  and 
a  danger.  To  us  it  as  gentle  and  as  harmless 
as  the  flowers  that  bloom  by  the  wayside,  and 
responds  to  our  every  wish  and  use  with  ab- 
solute tractability. 

"The  fault  of  the  rest   of  the  woild  is  that^ 


70  INTERMERE. 


all  great  discoveries,  all  the  unlockings  of  Na- 
ture's treasure-house,  are  turned  to  selfish 
ends,  to  the  aiggrandizement  of  the  few,  and 
the  detriment,  if  not  the  oppression,  of  the 
many;  hence  civil  commotions,  wars,  tyran- 
nies, the  insolence  of  opulence,  and  the  failure 
to  carry  forward  the  process  of  civilization 
and  the  elevation  of  the  race  by  the  unselfish 
aipplication  of  attained  wisdom.  The  barba- 
rian spirit  of  Self  is  dominant. 

"You  were  about  to  ask  if  you  might  carry 
this  record  home.  No.  You  will  be  permitted 
to  Inspect  it  and  others  similar  during  your 
sojourn,  and  carry  their  remembrance  with 
you,  and  thus  be  enabled  to  compare  them 
with  your  own  current  records  of  contempo- 
raneous dates;  but  that  is  all. 

'The  Western  nations  have  opened  their 
own  gates  and  invited  eventual  destruction  by 
this  apparently  temporary  invasion  of  the 
East.    This  war,  if  it  mav  be  so  called,  will  be 


INTERMERE.  71 


of  short  duration,  followed  by  the  oppression 
inseparable  from  selfish  greed,  commercialism 
and  the  love  of  conquest  and  arbitrary  power 
which  compels  the  unwilling  obedience  of 
peoples. 

"But  the  400,000,000,  Chinese  and  affiliated 
races,  are  more  insidiously  dangerous  than, 
you  know.  They  will  cultivate  the  seed  now 
being  sown,  and  prepare  the  dragon's  harvest 
of  blood.  In  the  remoter  provinces  they  will 
soon  breed  soldiers  and  captains,  who  will 
eclipse  the  bloody  and  destructive  achieve- 
ments of  Genghis  Khan  and  Tamerlane,  profit- 
ing by  your  present  superior  knowledge  of 
mechanism  and  the  arts  of  war,  which  they 
will  api»r()])riate  and  assimilate,  and  turn  to 
terrible  final  account. 

"The  commercial  greed  of  the  West  will  be 
the  enemy  of  the  Western  peoples  themselves. 
It  will  fit  and  arm  the  aroused  avengers  for 
their  world-wide  invasion  and  conflict.    Selfish 


72  INTERMERE. 


capitalists  will  do  this  in  spite  of  all  inhibi- 
tions, under  the  plea  of  creatinji:  prosperous 
conditions  and  extending  commerce,  and  their 
people  and  their  posterity  will  perish  by  the 
enginery  which  selfish  commercial  greed 
placed  in  the  hands  of  their  enemies." 

Maros  i)resented  me  to  another  official,  and 
politely  dismissed  me  to  visit  the  places  of  in- 
terest in  the  city.  Upon  my  return  to  America 
I  comi)ared  the  contemporaneous  history  of 
the  world  with  the  daily  records  I  had  been 
permitted  to  inspect,  the  remembrance  of 
which  I  vividly  retained,  and  found  every  fact 
therein  to  be  absolutely  correct. 


IV. 
A  TRIP  BY  AIR  AND  LAND  AND 
WATER  THROUGH  THE  PROV- 
IN('ES,  riTIES,  HAMLETS  AND 
GARDENS,  WITH  MATCHLESS 
BEAUTY  AND  ENJOYMENT  ON 
EVERY  HAND. 


INTERMERE.  75 


IV. 


A  TOUR  OF  SIGHT-SEEING. 


WHAT  A  WONDERFUL  land  is  Intermere, 
and  what  a  wonderful  people  live  and  enjoy 
life  in  it  to  the  full! 

Twenty  days  of  yisiting  ten  of  the  interior 
provinces,  bordering  on  thie  mere,  was  more 
like  a  dream  of  happiness,  sight-seeing  and  in- 
describable enjoyment  to  me  than  a  reality. 
Foi-  reasons  not  explained  to  me  I  was  not  car- 
ried into  the  fourteen  remaining  provinces, 
which  evidently  lay  in  all  directions  toward  the 
exterior  borders  of  the  land.  I  rather  suspect 
that  this  was  because  it  might  have  enabled 
nie  1o  form  some  definite  idea  of  the  geograph- 
ical location  of  Intermere. 

What  I  saw  and  experienced  I  still  retain 


76  INTERMERE. 


as  a  beautiful  and  ineffaceable  memory,  but  it 
is  a  picture  I  can  not  wholly  rej^roduce  or  de- 
scribe in  anything  like  complete  details.  1 
can  at  best  only  give  the  impressions  I  still 
retain. 

The  delightful  journey  was  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Karmas,  the  Custodian  of  Works  and 
Polity,  accompanied  by  other  chief  officers, 
and  the  officials  of  the  provinces,  the  title  and 
character  of  which  had  already  been  given  me 
by  Xamas. 

They  have  three  modes  of  travel:  by  Medo- 
car,  by  Aerocar,  and  by  Merocar.  By  the  first 
you  travel  on  land ;  by  the  second  through  the 
air;  by  the  third  on  the  water.  While  these 
vehicles  of  transportation  are  divided  into 
three  general  classes  as  designated,  they  com- 
prise thousands  of  beautiful  and  curious  de- 
signs, upon  which  individual  names  are  be- 
stowed, as  we  bestow  names  upon  our  horses 
and  our  shops. 


INTERMERE.  77 


There  is  no  preference  as  to  the  mode  and 
method  of  journeying.  Each  of  them  seems 
absolutely  perfect.  There  is  no  physical  sense 
of  motion  in  either,  as  we  realize  it. 

They  glide  over  the  broad,  smooth  and  per- 
fectly kept  roadways,  thiough  the  depths  of 
the  ether,  or  along  the  waters,  with  the  same 
imperceptible  motion,  and  can  be  put  to  a  rate 
of  speed  that  makes  our  limited  railway  trains 
seem  like  lumbering  farm  wagons.  All  resist- 
ance of  the  elements  seems  absolutely  over- 
come. 

The  power  of  propulsion  was  wholly  incom- 
prehensible at  first,  and  later  I  was  only  able 
to  learn  as  to  its  principle,  and  left  wholly  to 
conjecture  as  to  its  application. 

Roadways,  or,  perhaps  more  properly,  boule- 
vards, interlace  the  whole  country.  They  are 
the  perfection  of  road-building — smooth,  even- 
crowned,  and  free  from  dust,  water  or  other 
offensive  substance.     The    surface  is    like  a 


78  INTERMERE. 


newl}'  asphalted  street,  but  Lard  aud  imper- 
vious, with  no  depressions,  cracks  or  flaws. 
The  engineering  could  hardly  be  improved 
on.  Accepting  the  statements  made  to  me 
that  the  most  of  these  highways  have  been  in 
use  for  centuries,  with  few  if  any  repairs,  they 
may  be  looked  on  as  not  only  permanent  but 
indestructible. 

Thte  purpose  of  each  of  them  is  self-evident. 
Every  rod  of  it  is  for  use  and  to  meet  some 
requirement  that  presents  itself.  They  are 
bordered,  wherever  they  extend,  with  beauti- 
ful homes,  monuments  and  temples,  commem- 
orative of  some  great  achievement  in  civiliza- 
tion and  progress. 

The  residential  grounds,  farms  and  gardens 
are  marvels  of  exquisite  taste  without  an  ex- 
ception, so  far  as  I  was  able  to  note,  modeled 
after  countless  designs,  which  give  the  earth's 
surface  a  versatility  of  beauty  that  is  en- 
chanting. 


INTERMERE.  79 


There  are  farms  and  gardens  everywhere  ex- 
cept in  a  limited  number  of  the  compact 
squares  of  cities,  small  and  perfectly  kept,  and 
productive  in  a  sense  and  to  a  degree  abso- 
lutely incredible  to  the  dwellers  of  any  other 
laud. 

As  to  these  roadways:  They  are  of  the  uni- 
form width  of  two  hundred  feet  wherever  you 
find  them,  whether  skirting  sea,  lake  or  river, 
penetrating  valleys  or  clambering  around  and 
around  the  ascent  of  the  mountains  from  base 
to  apex,  where  some  monument  or  temple,  or 
both,  are  perched,  overlooking  hundreds  of 
square  miles. 

As  alrcnidy  stated,  they  are  (everywhere  as 
smooth  and  kept  as  clean  as  a  tiled  floor,  with 
a  sense  or  (juality  of  elasticity,  and  seemingly 
indestruclible.  I  Avould  have  regarded  them 
;is  natural  i)heuomena  had  1  not  seen  a  moun- 
laiu  being  terraced  and  a  roadway  being 
graded  and  finished  without  any  of  the  para- 


80  INTERMERE. 


phernalia  of  our  own  methods  of  engiueeriug 
and  construction. 

Earth  and  rock  seemed  to  melt  and  become 
mobile  under  the  influence  of  some  unseen 
power,  and  gangs  of  men,  following  with  lev- 
elers  of  light  machinery,  modulated  the  grades 
and  contours  of  the  crumbled  rock  and  soil. 
Others  followed  these,  compounding,  expand- 
ing and  laying  down  a  plastic  and  rapidly 
hardening  envelope,  thus  finishing  the  surface 
like  the  roads  over  which  we  were  gliding, 
some  of  which,  I  was  told,  had  been  in  use  for 
many  centuries  without  the  slightest  change 
of  condition. 

I  expressed  a  doubt  as  to  their  longevity. 

Karmas  smiled  and  said: 

"You  judge  by  experience.  In  your  cities 
you  import  material  from  some  distant  coun- 
try or  island,  and  by  mechanical  manipulation 
and  chemical  combination  and  processes  fit  it 
to  be  laid  down  as  a  pavement.    When  finished 


INTERMERE.  81 


it  looks  almost  as  smootli  and  beautiful  as 
yonder  landway  being  newly  constructed  to 
accommodate  the  expanding  population  of  the 
district.    But  the  resemblance  ends  here. 

"Your  chemists  and  engineers  and  construct- 
ors have  only  the  crudest  ideas  of  landway  or 
terraneous  works.  The  asphalt  is  a  sugges- 
tion, but  the  builder's  compound  turns  it  in 
the  direction  of  deterioration.  Instead  of  go- 
ing forward,  they  go  backward.  They  know 
little  of  the  character  of  the  materials  they 
seek  to  utilize,  and  nothing  of  the  true  princi- 
ples of  chemical  combination. 

"Our  material  is  at  hand,  as  it  is  at  hand 
everywhere,  containing  the  elements  which 
need  only  to  be  properly  combined  and  assim- 
ilated to  become  practically  indestructible. 

"You  take  a  clay,  and  by  machinery,  crude 
perhaps,  reduce  it  to  dust,  then  moisten  it  back 
into  pliable  clay,  fashion  it,  subject  it  to  an 
intense  but  unrefined  heat,  and  you  have  what 


82  INTERMERE. 


will  retain  its  form  and  consistence  for  centu- 
ries, and  resist  the  elemental  attacks  longer 
even  than  granite.  This  is  but  the  dawn  of 
possibilities.  The  semi-barbarous,  thousands 
of  years  ago,  went  further  and  made  them  flex- 
ible as  well  as  durable.  Their  discoveries  were 
long  ago  forgotten. 

''Your  people  never  go  beyond  the  point  of 
discovery.  They  stop  short  of  the  possibilities. 
They  lose  these  possibilities  in  material  and 
commercial  utilization.  Ego  stands  between 
the  discoverer  and  the  world,  and  progress 
ends. 

"While  the  rest  of  the  world  has  thus,  again 
and  again,  stood  still  on  the  threshold,  or 
moved  backward  or  forward  intermittently,  for 
obvious  and  selfish  reasons,  we  have  steadily 
moved  forward  in  scientific  discovery  and  re- 
search, and  the  application  of  great  principles. 

"The  example  is  before  you.  Without  any 
of  your  (iiide  and  cumbersome  machinery,  the 


INTERMERE.  83 


mountain  is  being  terraced  and  fitted  for  the 
abode  of  man,  the  elemental  constituents  are 
being  disintegrated,  properly  disposed,  rear- 
ranged and  the  surface  recombined  in  a  new 
fonn  and  proportion  by  natural  laws,  and  re- 
mote generations  will  find  yonder  land  way  as 
our  workmen  will  leave  it.  They  could  level 
the  mountain  as  readily  as  they  terrace  it,  dis- 
tributing it  over  the  adjacent  plain,  leaving  it 
a  level  and  fertile  glebe,  instead  of  a  towering 
height  of  lock  and  sand  overspread  with  soil. 

"All  that  you  see  or  will  see  is  the  result  of 
knowledge  and  wisdom  turned  to  noble  and 
unselfish  ends  for  the  common  betterment  and 
elevation  of  the  race. 

"Vour  prttgenitors  learned  to  dig  th(^  hard 
and  soft  ores  fiom  the  earth  and  produce  iron, 
then  took  a  step  forward  and  converted  it  into 
steel,  of  grealer  sliength  an  durability,  cai»a- 
ble  of  light  forms  and  high  polish,  and  there 
you  have  stopped  at  the  very  beginning.    You 


84  INTER  MERE. 


are  incapable  of  saving  your  own  handiwork 
from  disintegration.  The  elements  corrode 
your  finest  steel  products,  and  they  flake  away 
to  the  original  conditions  of  the  crude  ore,  los- 
ing a  large  proportion  of  their  original  virtues 
and  constituents.  We  have,  on  the  contrary, 
gone  forward  to  the  ultimate. 

"You  have  denuded  your  lands  of  forests  to 
use  as  a  cumbersome  material  for  building, 
and  furniture  and  other  purposes,  the  wood, 
which  decays  and  is  soon  destroyed.  You 
have,  without  understanding  the  process,  mac- 
erated and  reduced  woods  to  a  pulp  and  fash- 
ioned it  into  paper,  which  in  several  forms  you 
utilize,  but  you  have  stopped  at  the  beginning 
of  the  journey. 

''We  have  carried  it  forward,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  material  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  our  houses  and  furniture  and 
bridges  and  cars  are  the  product  of  our  forests 
in  a  new  and  better  and  more  enduring  form — 


INTERMERE.  85 


light  and  capable  of  the  most  graceful  fashion- 
ing. This  is  used  in  combination  with  the 
metals  in  all  departments  of  our  economies." 

I  had  already  noticed  the  fact  that  but  little 
of  the  woodwork  was  in  the  natural  form,  and 
that  while  it  was  incredulously  light,  it  was 
incredibly  strong.  The  same  was  true  of  the 
wrought  metals,  all  of  which  differed  from  our 
own  forms. 

In  my  examinations  of  the  bridges  across 
streams,  both  large  and  small,  I  noted  the  fact 
that  they  were  constructed  in  about  equal 
parts  of  wood,  or  a  substance  I  took  therefor, 
and  metal,  differing  greatly  from  the  metals 
we  use,  yet  not  wholly  unlike  them.  Both  ma- 
terials were  of  tubular  construction,  appear- 
ing almost  fragile  in  their  lightness,  but 
strong  and  firm,  and  showing  none  of  the  rav- 
ages of  time  and  the  elements. 

So  far  as  I  w^as  able  to  judge  no  paints  were 
used,  but  everything  was  perfectly  polished. 
The  bridges    were    light,  airy    constructions, 


86  INTERMERE. 


swung  from  lofty  and  graceful  piers,  a  span 
of  a  thfOusand  feet  appearing  to  be  as  firm  and 
strong  asi  one  of  fifty. 

I  also  noticed  that  in  their  construction  of 
cars,  furniture,  houses,  and  the  like,  the  woods 
and  metals  were  indiscriminately  used,  more 
for  beauty  and  ornamentation,  perhaps,  than 
for  strengthening  purposes  or  utility.  Light- 
ness and  gracefulness  were  in  evidence  every- 
where. There  were  panels  and  inlays  of  wood 
in  its  natural  state,  highly  wrought  and  pol- 
ished, as  hard  and  impervious  as  the  metals. 

"You  seem  to  be  able  to  make  everything 
indestructible,"  I  said  to  Karmas.  | 

"It  is  your  privilege  to  draw  your  own  con- 
clusions," was  his  reply. 


The  people  I  met  and  mingled  with,  both 
men  and  women,  were  superb  specimens  of  the 
human  race,  full  of  life,  full  of  hope,  full  of 
high  ambitions,  and  capable  of  infiinite  en- 
joyments. 


INTERMERE.  87 


Games,  sports  and  social  amenities  were  the 
order  of  their  daily  life,  albeit  every  one  of 
them  engaged  in  some  laborious  or  businessi 
occupation  during  a  part  of  each  day.  I  learned 
that  under  their  system  of  economy  less  than 
four  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  were  neces- 
sary for  the  comfort,  sustenance  and  require- 
ments of  each  adult,  so  that  labor  did  not  de- 
generate into  slavery.  Every  fifth  day  was  a 
holiday,  during  which  no  labor  was  performed, 
except  such  as  was  necessary  for  the  enjoy- 
ments of  the  day. 

Manufacturing  and  business  of  different 
kinds  were  diffused  in  proportion  to  the  popu- 
lation. There  were  no  great  factories  or  busi- 
ness houses,  but  innumerable  small  ones.  No 
manufacturer  employed  more  than  ten  per- 
sons, usually  but  five,  and  two  or  three  em- 
ployes were  suflicient  for  the  business  houses. 

The  remarkable  discoveries  and  inventions 
of  tlu'  land  rc\'olul ionized  all  our  ideas  of  man- 


88  INTERMERE. 


ual  labor  and  mechanics.  Heavy  and  bulky 
macliiueiy  is  entirely  unknown. 

There  were  no  smoking  furnaces,  no  clangor 
of  machinery.  The  factory  was  as  neat  and 
practically  as  noiseless  as  the  private  home. 
Useful  and  necessary  devices  and  machinery 
were  turned  out  as  quietly  as  a  housewife  dis- 
poses of  her  routine  labors.  Science  had  ap- 
parently solved  the  rough  and  knotty  problem 
of  labor  and  production. 

Nowhere  did  1  see  a  furnace;  in  fact, fire  was 
visible  nowhere;  and  yet  I  could  see  its  offices 
performed  everywhere.  I  asked  Karmas  to 
explain  the  phenomena. 

"That,"  he  replied,  "will  be  explained  to  you 
by  Remo,  Custodian  of  Useful  Mechanical  De- 
vices.   That  is  his  oflScial  sphere." 

Another  incredible  phenomenon  presented 
itself  during  the  journey.  We  passed  through 
one  province  early  in  that  journey,  and  my  at- 
tention was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  farmers 


INTERMERE.  89 


were  sowing  their  cereals,  which,  by  the  way, 
j^reatly  resemble  our  own,  but  in  a  much  high- 
er state  of  cultivation  and  infinitely  more  nu- 
tritious. 

Ten  days  later  we  repassed  the  same  spot, 
and  they  were  harvesting  the  ripened  grain. 

''In  my  country,"  I  said  to  Karmas,  "from 
ei<;ht  to  ten  months,  dependent  upon  the  sea- 
son, elapses  between  the  sowing  and  the  har- 
vesting of  wheat.  Here  the  period  is  reduced 
to  from  eight  to  ten  days.  I  can  not  under- 
stand the  discrepancy." 

*'But  it  is  an  absolute  mystery  to  you?" 

"It  is." 

"And  yet  your  own  people  have  approached 
the  twilight  of  its  solution.  By  selection  of 
seeds  and  combination  of  soils,  and  other  per- 
fectly natural  processes,  they  have  been  able 
to  change  the  nature  of  vegetation  and  pro- 
duce new  vegetable  being.  The  period  for  the 
growth  and  maturing  of  nearly  all  your  grains 


90  INTERMERE. 


and  vegetables  has  been  perceptibly  shortened, 
and  entirely  new  forms  produted,  within  the 
past  century,  and  largely  within  the  period  of 
your  own  lifetime. 

"Your  floriculturists  and  horticulturists 
h(aye  carried  the  evolution  the  furthest,  and 
yet  they  do  not  even  faintly  comprehend  the 
real  principle  which  produces  results.  We  un- 
derstand and  intelligently  apply  it.  Hence 
with  us  but  ten  days  elapse  between  seedtime 
and  haiAest,  and  shorter  periods  in  the  pro- 
duction of  our  common  vegetables. 

"We are  able  to  produce  flowers  of  all  shapes 
and  colors  at  will,  and  with  the  absolute  cer- 
tainty of  the  operation  of  fixed  and  immutable 
laws,  while  your  florists,  groping  in  the  dark, 
occasionally  stumble  on  a  result,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  law  that  produces  it,  and  give 
their  fellows  a  nine-days'  wonder. 

"Yesterday  you  asked  me  why  all  the  farms 
were  so  diminutiv(> — 'merely  a  ten-acre  field,' 


INTERMERE.  91 


as  yon  expressed  it.  The  explanation  is  before 
you.  Each  of  these  small  farms  is  c-apable  of 
producing  food  for  one  thousand  persons  with 
their  constantly  duplicated  crops.  There  is 
i-oom  for  a  million  such  farms  in  the  Common- 
wealth, without  impinging  upon  the  residen- 
tial demesnes  or  cities. 

"There  is  no  need  to  put  these  farms  to  the 
full  test  of  their  productiveness.  The  twen- 
tieth part  suffices.  We  have  a  population  of 
50,000, Odd,  increasing  at  the  rate  of  scarcely 
one  per  cent  each  year,  and  two-thirds  of  the 
Commonwealth  is  public  domain,  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  countless  generations  yet  unborn. 
Each  year  and  each  day  brings  their  immedi- 
ate needs,  and  they  are  met  with  plenteous 
fullness." 


Karmas  later  gave  me  a  fuller  idea  of  the 
general  polity  of  the  Comonwealth. 

All   men   become   voters  at  25,  If  thiey  are 


92  INTERMERE. 


married,  and  participate  in  the  choice  of  oflfi- 
cers.  All  are  eligible  to  office.  On  the  day 
fixed  for  the  election  of  public  officials  the 
voter  calis  up  the  office  of  the  Municipal  Cus- 
todian and  registers  his  choice  in  the  ballot- 
receiver,  which  automatically  records,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  balloting  announces  the  result. 
If  for  provincial  officers,  it  is  instantaneously 
transmitted  to  the  capital  of  the  province,  and 
if  for  Commonwealth  officers  to  the  Greater 
City.  In  our  land  this  would  open  the  door  to 
fraud,  but  in  Intermere  there  is  neither  fraud 
nor  chicane. 

There  are  no  armies,  no  warships,  no  police, 
no  peace  or  distress  officers,  and  no  courts  and 
no  lawyers,  fc^ometimes  citizens  may  differ,  as 
they  differ  in  other  lands, as  to  their  respective 
rights  or  obligations.  In  such  case  they  re- 
pair to  the  Municipal  Custodian  and  state  the 
respective  sides  of  their  case.  The  Custodian 
decides  at  uuce,  and  that  ends  forever  the  con- 


INTERMERE.  93 


troveisy,  unless  one  or  the  other  appeals  to 
the  Chief  Citizen  of  the  Province  and  his 
Counselors,  who  consider  the  original  state- 
ments submitted  to  the  Custodian  and  render 
the  final  judgment.  It  is  seldom  an  appeal  is 
taken,  and  seldom  that  an  original  decision  is 
revised. 

The  educational  period  continues  from  birth 
to  20  years  of  age,  in  what  may  be  called  a 
common  school,  held  in  the  temples,  which  all 
enter  at  the  age  of  ten. 

The  spheres  of  the  two  sexes  are  clearly 
marked,  and  both  live  within  them,  that  of  the 
female  being  regarded  as  the  highest  and  most 
sacred.  The  men  make  the  homes  and  the 
women  care  for  and  beautify  them,  and  re- 
ceive the  homage  universally  accorded  them. 

Neither  sex  looks  upon  necessary'  labor  as  a 
drudgery  or  in  iinj  manner  degrading.  They 
all  receive  a  like  education,  and  the  superior 
mental  equipment  invariably  asserts  itself  in 


94  INTERMERE. 


some  appropriate  direction. 

Almost  invariably  the  children  of  the  house- 
hold marry  in  the  order  of  their  birth,  being  ab- 
solutely free  to  choose  their  mates.  There  are 
no  marriages  for  convenience  and  no  second 
marriages.  All  are  the  result  of  affection  and 
natural  affinity. 

The  last  child  to  marry  inherits  the  home- 
stead at  the  death  of  the  father.  The  surviv- 
ing mother  becomes  the  Preferred  Guest  ol  her 
child  during  the  remainder  of  her  life,  and  is 
treated  as  such.  If  the  father  survives,  he 
retains  his  position  as  head  of  the  household. 
The  personal  estate  of  a  deceased  parent  is 
divided  equally  among  the  children. 

"In  short,"  said  Karmas,  "We  aim  to  dispose 
the  burdens  and  distribute  the  enjoyments  of 
life  equally  and  justly  among  all. 

"Tomorrow  we  will  be  accompanied  by  Al- 
paz,  the  Curator  of  Learning  and  Progress, 
who  will  answer  the  other  questions  in  your 
mind." 


V. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  LIFE,  AND 
THE  FACULTY  OF  ITS  ENJOY- 
MENT AS  PERSONIFED  IN  THE 
PERSONS  AND  VOCATIONS  OF 
THE  ENTERTAINERS. 


INTERMERE.  97 


V. 


SOME    OF  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF  LIFE. 


THE  ENVIRONMENTS  of  life  have  much 
to  do  with  its  philosophy.  This  thought  im- 
pressed itself  forcibly  ou  me  in  Intermere. 

The  environments  of  its  people  contribute 
much,  if  not  most,  to  their  philosophy,  or  the 
faculty  of  life's  enjoyments. 

They  are  pleasantly  housed,  handsomely 
habilitated,  physically  and  intellectually  em- 
ployed, sans  the  driving  spur  of  necessity  oi^ 
greed,  with  profound  and  earnest  aspirations 
beyond  their  p-resent  stage  of  existence.  This 
is  not  confined  to  the  few,  but  animates  and 
elevates  all. 

Learning,  in  a  loftier  sense  than  we  under- 
sl;ind  the  term;  art,  music  and  all  thr  senses 


98  INTERMERE. 


of  physical  aud  mental  enjoyment,  and  the  pro- 
motion of  all  of  them,  are  pitched  in  a  high 
and  harmonious  key. 

Personal  adornment  and  physical  beauty  in 
both,  sexes  have  no  tinge  of  vanity,  and  awake 
no  envy  in  others.  Intermerean  dress  and  its 
adjuncts  are  as  closely  looked  after  as  their 
wonderful  mechanism  and  its  mysterious  soul 
or  motor-spirit,  which  enables  them  to  travel 
with  celerity  and  safety  by  land  or  air  or  sea, 
or  that  subtler  principle  by  which  men  and 
women,  separated  by  distance,  talk  to  (^acli 
other  by  thought  instead  of  speech,  and  would 
render  the  clumsy  deception  of  our  own  diplo- 
mats and  other  hypocrites  an  impossibility. 

The  clothing  of  the  Interemereans,  wrought 
from  native  materials  not  wholly  unlike,  ex- 
cept as  to  quality,  those  utilized  by  other  peo- 
ples, is  of  a  texture  and  finish  beyond  the  con- 
ception of  the  outer  world,  and  of  such  colors 
aud  combinations  of  tints  as  to  breathe,  as  it 


INTER  MERE.  99 


were,  both  art  and  aptitude. 

The  garments  of  both  sexes  more  nearly  re- 
semble those  in  Europe  and  America  than  any 
others,  and  yet  they  are  verj'  unlike  in  strik- 
ing points.  Speaking  of  this  similitude,  I  nmy 
say  that  the  polity  and  institutions,  and  men- 
tal and  physical  characteristics  of  the  people 
who  live  under  them,  more  nearly  resemble 
those  of  America  than  of  any  other  nation  or 
I>eople. 

But  at  that,  how  wide  and  deep  and  appar- 
ently impassable  is  the  gulf  that  separates 
them.  Ours  is  but  the  faint  promise;  theirs 
the  fulfillment  of  the  completed  prophecy. 

Did  we  start  on  the  journey?  Have  we 
halted  just  beyond  the  first  milestone?  Will 
the  journe}'  be  resumed?  Will  our  remoter 
generations  reach  the  intima  Thule?  What 
splendid  hope  or  what  illimitable  despair  and 
misery  depend  upon  the  Sphinx's  answer  to 
these^  questions! 


100  INTERMERE. 


While  Intermere  is  not  sown  with  diamonds 
and  pearls  and  precious  stones  and  metals, 
they  were  to  be  seen  in  profusion  everywhere, 
not  as  matters  of  garish  display,  but  of  artistic 
taste.  I  doubt  not  that  the  Intermereans, 
through  their  successful  study  of  Nature,  pos- 
sess the  Philosopher's  Stone,  capable  of  com- 
bining and  transmuting  every  substance  into 
the  riches  for  which  men  die  and  women  sacri- 
fice more  than  life,  and  nations  crush  nations, 
and  peoples  destroy  peoples,  gathering  the 
Dead  Sea  fruits  that  turn  to  bitter  ashes  on 
their  lips. 

These  people  place  no  more  commercial 
value  upon  these  than  they  do  upon  the  tints 
of  the  rainbow,  or  the  purple  haze  that  hangs 
like  a  halo  above  the  mountain  tops.  To  them 
they  are  but  artistic  types  of  beauty  that  add 
to  life's  true  enjoyments. 

In  mingling  socially  with  the  men  and 
women — thej  do  not  speak  of  them  as  ladies 


INTERMERE.  101 


and  gentlemen — of  Intermere,  I  was  struck 
with  their  ease  and  delicate  frankness  of  en- 
tertainment. They  were  very  human  indeed 
in  every  way.  There  was  no  affectation  in 
speech  or  manner.  They  were  good  listeners 
as  well  as  good  talkers,  fond  of  art  and  the 
lofty  literature  in  which  they  were  naturally 
at  home;  anxious  to  learn  something  about  the 
outside  world  from  their  visitor,  and  yet  not 
inquisitive,  never  asking  an  embarrassing 
question. 

Their  literary  and  social  entertainments, 
many  of  which  I  attended,  while  altogether 
new  and  strange  to  me,  were  none  the  less 
thoroughly  enjoyable.  Their  social  games 
were  unique — to  me — and  in  all  respects  I  was 
struck  with  their  great  superiority,  and 
forcibly  impressed  with  the  belief  that  their 
lives  were  indeed  worth  living. 

Their  conceptions  of  art  were  of  the  highest 
and  most  <>xnlt(Ml  character.    Their  tastes  were 


102  INTERMERE. 


not  only  refined  but  sublimated,  and  I  felt 
abashed  at  my  own  inability  to  follow  them 
rapidly,  or  fully  comprehend  them  on  the 
moment. 

The  women  were  splendid  types  of  physical 
beauty  as  well  as  mental  endowment;  the  men 
were  trained  athletes,  and  the  devotees  of 
physical  as  well  as  mental  culture,  and  I 
watched  with|  keen  zest  their  prowess  in  the 
athletic  games  everywhere  indulged  in.  I  did 
not  see  a  physical,  mental  or  moral  derelict  in 
the  land.  All  were  robust  and  perfectly 
formed. 

There  were  no  clases.  Laborers  and  oflfi- 
cials  met  on  an  equal  footing.  There  were  no 
telltale  differences  in  dress  to  indicate  sets, 
circles,  position  or  titles  among  the  men.  The 
same  was  true  of  the  women.  Mental  supe- 
riority or  maturity  was  discernible  to  me  and 
recognized  on  every  hiand,  not  to  be  envied  or 
decried,  but  to  serve  as  the  i-uide  to  other  feet. 


INTERMERE.  103 


And  all  this  was  easily  reconcilable  to  me. 
All  were  coequal  laborers.  All  were  coequal 
sharers  of  the  common  benefits  of  their  gov- 
ernmental system,  and  they  all  had  a  common 
incentive — to  ennoble  and  dignify  the  race  by 
ennobling  and  dignifying  themselves  individ- 
ually, but  contributing  alike  to  the  common 
stock  of  blessings. 

Never  before  did  I  fully  realize  the  meaning 
of  the  Divine  Master  when  He  said:  "Whatso- 
ever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  even  so  to  them."  Before  me  and  around 
me  was  the  literal  fulfillment  of  the  injunction 
in  the  form  of  the  model  government  for  man- 
kind, founded  upon  the  highest  attribute  of 
Divinity. 

But  there  was  neither  cant  nor  affected 
solemnity  in  the  never-ending  performance  of 
this  duty.  It  had  become  absolutely  and  es- 
sentially a  i»art  of  their  nature,  and  was  at 
once  the  cornerstone  and  the  Temple  of  their 


104  INTERMERE. 


Religion;  but  their  ideas  of  Religion  were 
widely  different  from  ours.  They  never  ex- 
pounded, but  lived  it. 

Delightful  people  accompanied  us  if  we 
traveled  in  Aerocars;  delightful  people  met  us 
with  Medocai's  when  we  came  to  terra  flrma, 
and  accompanied  us  through  the  bewildering 
lanes  and  mazes  of  beauty  by  land;  and  de- 
lightful people  met  us  with  fairy-like  Merocars 
when  we  sought  to  thread  the  enchanting 
islands  of  the  strange  pulsating,  moving  sea. 

Thus  day  by  day  I  was  carried  from  prov- 
ince to  province,  from  city  to  city,  from  valley 
to  valley  and  from  mountain  to  mountain;  re- 
lays of  entertainers  met  us  at  every  stopping- 
point  to  take  the  places  of  those  who  had  ac- 
companied us  thither.  Nothing  could  have 
seemed  more  unreal;  nothing  could  have  been 
more  exquisitely  enjoyable. 

Now  we  wound  through  gardens  smiling 
with  beautv  and  redolent  with  balm  and  fra- 


INTERMERE.  105 


grance;  anon  we  were  in  orchards  plucking 
the  ripened  fruit;  then  in  the  harvest  fields  of 
the  husbandman,  and  next  in  shops,  factory 
or  store;  I  wondering  at  all  I  saw,  and  my  con- 
ductors kindly  wondering  at  me,  no  doubt,  but 
of  that  they  gave  no  significance  or  sign. 

Almost  literally  speaking  there  is  no  night 
iu  Intermere.  With  the  twilight  myriads  of 
lights  flash  out  everywhere  along  the  streets, 
highways,  lanes,  and  from  residences,  temples 
and  monuments,  more  luminous  than  our  elec- 
tric lamps,  diffusing  a  mellow  and  pleasing 
light  everywhere.  But  one  sees  no  wires,  as 
with  us,  to  feed  the  lamps  of  many  sizes  and 
shades. of  light,  each  one  of  which,  so  far  as 
we  can  see  and  realize,  is  independent  of  all 
others  and  everything. 

Merry  parties  make  moonlight  and  starlight 
trips  by  Aerocar.  I  enjoyed  one  of  them,  and 
there  are  no  words  adequate  to  the  description 
of  what  I  saw  and  enjoyed.     A\'ith  the  moon 


106  INTERMERE. 


ajid  stars  above  and  the  millions  of  lights  be- 
low, with  music,  song  and  laughter  ringing 
through  the  ethereal  depths,  I  was  in  a  new 
world,  and  one  beyond  ordinary  human  con- 
ceptions, much  less  description.  The  Aerocars 
themselves  were  studded  with  countless  lights 
of  all  the  colors  and  shades,  and  shone  like 
trailing  meteors  at  every  angle  of  inclination, 
singly  here,  grouped  there,  and  in  processions 
beyond. 

It  may  be  said  in  this  connection  that  while 
the  lutermereans  eat  the  flesh  of  both  domes- 
tic and  wild  animals  and  fowls,  resembling  in 
general  features  our  own,  and  fish,  they  sub 
sist  chiefly  on  a.  vegetable  diet,  especially  be- 
tween the  age  of  infancy  and  twenty  years, 
and  after  sixty. 

One  of  the  mysteries  confronting  me  was 
that  of  cookery.  They  used  no  fire,  nor  any 
of  our  ordinary  cooking  utensils,  and  yet  they 
served  hot  meals  and  drinks,  prepared  in  what 


INTERMERE.  107 


may  be  called,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  cbaf- 
iiig-  dislies  and  urns,  and  yet  there  was  no 
sense  of  heat  or  fire,  except  when  in  close  con- 
tact with  the  utensils. 

In  a.  chafing  dish  they  broiled  or  roasted  or 
baked;  in  an  adjoining  urn  they  brewed  a  de- 
lightful hot  drink  resembling  coffee,  while  in 
another  near  by  they  made  the  most  delicious 
ices. 

The  housewife  maintained  neither  dining- 
room  nor  kitchen.  Meals  were  prepared  and 
served  wherever  most  convenient,  on  veranda 
or  in  the  house  proper.  The  table  was  spread 
in  beautiful  style  with  exquisite  furnishment, 
and  presided  over  by  the  housewife.  A  woman 
assistant,  or  more  than  one,  according  to  the 

requirements  of  the  occasion,  had  charge  of 
a  suitable  sideboard,  where  the  entire  meal 

was  prepared,  and  from  which  it  was  served 

to  the  company  as  desired.     There  were  no 

odors  from  the  cooking,  and  nothing  to  sug- 


108  INTERMERE. 


gest  the  kitchen  or  scullery. 

This  is  so  unlike  our  methods  that  it  ap- 
propriateness can  not  be  realized  short  of  the 
actual  experience.  The  culinary  utensils  are 
rather  ornamental  than  otherwise,  and  the 
preparation  of  the  dishes  occupies  an  incred- 
ibly short  period  of  time. 

On  our  various  journeys  by  land  and  sea 
and  air,  I  found  that  a  full  stock  of  provisions 
was  carried,  along  with  the  culinary  para- 
phernalia, and  were  served  regularly  and  with 
as  much  care  and  taste  as  in  any  residence. 
Ices  and  confections  were  made  as  readily  in 
mid-air  as  on  land  or  sea.  by  some  mysterious 
and  never-failing  process. 

One  day  as  we  rested  in  a  charming  suburb 
of  the  Lesser  City,  Alpaz,  the  Curator  of 
Learning  and  Progress,  appeared  in  a  splen- 
didly appointed  Aerocar,  accompanied  by  his 
entire  family  and  attended  by  a  fleet  of  Aero- 
cars  carrying  his  assitants,  provincial  officials 


INTERMERE.  109 


and  men  and  women,  who  made  up  his  entour- 
•A'j^e.  It  proved  to  be  a  most  delightful  com- 
pany. 

After  sailing  overhead  for  hundreds  of 
miles  we  descended  to  an  island,  along  the 
beach  of  which  lay  a  complement  of  Merocars, 
to  accommodate  the  entire  party,  as  well  as 
some  of  the  insular  citizens  who  begged  to  ac- 
company us. 

Then  ensued  a  voyage  the  memory  of  which 
still  lingers  with  me.  Such  dreamlike  beauty 
I  never  expect  to  see  this  side  the  gates  of 
eternity.  It  changed  with  every  moment,  and 
never  palled  nor  paled.  Through  this  maze  of 
land  and  water  and  bewildering  enchantment 
we  journeyed,  listening  to  conversation  and 
music,  till  finally  touching  the  mainland,  we 
found  the  Thief  Citizen  of  the  Province,  and 
his  attendants  and  officials,  with  Medocars, 
in  which  the  entire  party  was  carried  to  his 
capital,    whi(di    crowned    a    grand    elevation 


110  INTERMERE. 


some  two  hundred  miles  inland. 

Here  we  were  entertained  in  magnificent 
simplicity  for  a  day,  and  here  Alpaz  discoursed 
to  me  on  the  many  matters  in  which  I  was  in- 
terested, and  which  fell  within  the  sphere  of 
his  Curatorship.  1  cannot  recount  them  all, 
but  shall  endeavor  to  bring  out  the  main 
points. 

"You  would  learn  something  of  our  educa- 
tional system?"  he  said,  as  though  I  had  plied 
him  with  a  question. 

"It  is  quite  simple.  It  involves  no  comi)lex- 
ities.  We  follow  only  the  path  of  nature. 
From  birthi  to  the  age  of  ten  the  infant  is  in 
the  exclusive  control  and  tutorshij)  of  the 
mother.  She  alone  is  entirely  capable  of 
moulding  the  infantile  mind,  and  setting  its 
feet  aright  in  the  pathway  of  manhood  and 
womanhood. 

"In  3'our  land,  as  in  others,  all  too  often  she 
delegates  this  great  duty  to  alien  and  unfit 


INTERMERE.  Ill 


hands,  and  reaps  the  bitter  harvest  of  sorrow 
in  the  afternoon  of  motherhood. 

''At  the  age  of  ten,  when  the  mother  htis  fit- 
ted the  mind  for  stronger  impressions,  the  child 
enters  the  broader  field  of  learning.  Our  tem- 
ples, which  you  meet  ever3'where,  are  our 
sch'oolhouses,  our  altars  of  Learning  and 
Knowledge,  the  cherubim  of  Wisdom. 

"These  temples  are  the  abode  of  Knowledge 
and  Wisdom,  handed  down  in  the  records  of 
the  ages,  showing  each  successive  step  taken 
and  to  what  it  led.  Here  they  are  taught  by 
the  older  men  and  women,  who  having  retired 
from  the  activities  of  life,  with  a  competence 
assured  them,  matured  in  thought,  filled  with 
knowledge  and  possessed  of  wisdom,  perform 
their  final  labor,  a  labor  of  love  for  the  young- 
er generation. 

"At  the  age  of  fifteen  every  boy  and  every 
girl  develops  the  line  of  effort  to  which  they 
incline  in  the  respective  spheres  of  the  sexes. 


112  INTERMERE. 


aud  thereafter,  to  the  age  of  twenty  for  fe- 
males and  twenty-five  for  males,  they  are  in- 
structed along  these  lines  by  their  tutors,  in 
the  meantime  devoting  a  part  of  their  time  to 
some  useful  occupation.  The  result  is  men 
and  women  in  every  way  fitted  to  fulfill  their 
destiny. 

"No;  we  have  no  clergy,  no  ministers  as  you 
term  them,  to  teach  either  the  old  or  the  young 
in  what  you  name  religion.  We  have  no 
churches.  Reverence  for  the  Supreme  Prin- 
ciple of  the  Universe  is  instilled  into  every 
mind,  from  infancy  up,  and  all  our  people  live 
these  teachings.  They  do  not  listen  to  them 
one  day  in  seven  and  neglect  to  follow  all  or 
the  majority  of  them  for  six. 

"We  know  nothing,  except  as  lamentable 
facts,  of  the  various  so-called  religious  divis- 
ions which  convulse  the  rest  of  the  world — 
Confucianism,  Hindooism,  Mohammedanism, 
Buddhism,  Taoism,  Shintoism,  Judaism,  Poly- 


INTERMERE.  113 


theism  and  Christianity,  and  the  many  war- 
ring 01"  antagonistic  sects  into  which  they  di- 
vided and  subdivided. 

"We  know  only  loving  reverence  for  the  Su- 
preme Principle  of  the  Universe,  filial  love 
and  piety,  and  justice  to  all  creatures.  This 
is  the  soul  and  essence  of  your  religion,  Thris- 
tiauity,  and  the  basic  principle  of  all  others. 
^^'e  prefer  the  last  analysis  to  the  inchoate 
mass  of  contending  creeds,  that  have  drenched 
the  earth  with  blood  for  time  out  of  mind,  and 
filled  it  with  doubt  and  misery;  and  even  now, 
in  the  twilight  of  your  Nineteenth  Century, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Child  of  Nazareth,  ])ro- 
mulgates  Christianization  and  evangelization 
at  the  cannon's  mouth  and  with  the  sword  and 
torch,  of  peoples  whose  only  offense  is  that 
they  believe  that  their  Cod  requires  thus  and 
so  at  their  hands  as  a  ])rei-equisite  to  their  en- 
trance into  His  heavenly  kingdom. 

"By  gentler  and  educatory  teachings,   un- 


114  INTERMERE. 


tainted  by  the  corroding  canker  of  selfishness, 
they  might  be  turned  in  the  right  direction 
and  their  generations  be  led  into  the  light, 
provided  that  your  educational  system  moved 
on  a  loftier  plane  than  theirs;  but  blood  and 
violence,  and  all  the  carnal  lusts  that  follow 
like  jackals  in  their  wake,  can  only  eventuate 
in  driving  them  into  lower  depths. 

"The spiritual  instructors  of  the  outer  world, 
past  and  present,  are  and  have  been,  in  the 
main,  sincere  and  earnest,  but  with  a  limited 
idea  of  the  spiritualism  they  essay  to  teach. 
Powerful  prelacies  have  grown  up  in  all  the 
religious  divisions,  ambitious  of  temporal 
power,  and  untold  evils  have  resulted,  not 
from  the  system  of  religion,  but  from  the  love 
of  power  and  authiority,  non-sjiiritual  in  its 
nature,  and  as  a  result  the  spirit  or  principle 
of  religion  has  suffered  undeserved  obloquy. 

''To  us  the  ideal  God  of  your  religious  peo- 
ple is  strangely  contradictory  and  irreconcila- 


INTER  MERE.  116 


ble.  He  is  portrayed  not  as  a  spiritual  being, 
but  as  a  common  mortal  in  many  of  the  essen- 
tials. Their  conception  of  Deity  is  that  He 
rules  as  a  kiny;  in  heaven,  before  whom  the  re- 
deemed and  the  saints  forever  prostrate  them- 
selves in  adoration  or  sing  praises  by  voice, 
and  adulate  Him  with  harp  and  lute  and  other 
musical  instruments,  confessing  hourly  their 
unworthlness  to  come  into  His  presence. 

"This  is  an  earthly,  barbarous  conception 
of  the  Supreme  Power  of  the  Universe.  It  was 
probably  of  Chinese  or  Oriental  origin  in  the 
days  of  supreme  despotism,  w'hen  every  sub- 
ject must  prostrate  himself  in  the  dust  in  the 
presence  of  majesty. 

"This  idea  was  transuiilted  to  Christendom 
in  the  ^^'est  whicn  royally  proclaimed  itself 
(he  symbol  of  Godhood  and  religion.  The  sub- 
ject was  taught  that  the  monarch  was  the  di- 
rect representative  of  God,  and  his  court  was 
iriodejed  after  the  court  of  the  King  of  kings, 


116  INTERMERE. 


where  homage  and  adoration  and  humiliation 
were  the  endless  order  of  all  future  life. 

"We  have  an  entirely  different  conception 
of  the  Supreme  Principle,  and  do  not  regard 
it  in  the  light  of  a  ruler  or  king,  in  the  mortal 
sense,  but  the  embodiment  of  justice  and  love, 
that  neither  exacts  nor  receives  adoration  of 
those  who  pass  to  the  world  beyond,  the  re- 
turning children  of  the  great  and  enduring 
Principle  which  exists  everywhere,  strength- 
ened and  broadened  by  a  previous  state  or 
states  of  existence,  wherein  they  were  clothed 
about  with  mortal  and  perishable  habiliments. 

"We  look  forward  to  the  passage  from  this 
world  to  a  better  one  beyond  with  joyous  ex- 
pectation, and  with  no  sense  of  terror  or  ap- 
prehension, and  there  come  us  no  pangs  of  dis- 
solution. We  have  sought  diligently  to  live 
up  to  the  law  of  love  in  this  life,  and  have  the 
fullest  assurance  that  our  efforts  will  meet 
the  aj)pr()val  of  the  Supreme  Principle,  whose 


INTERMERE.  117 


beneficences  invite  and  permit  us  to  enter  the 
broader  fields  and  more  perfect  worlds  of  a 
higher  existence. 

"Death,  or  the  exchange  of  worlds,  has  nei- 
ther terrors  for  those  who  go,  nor  the  stings 
of  affliction  for  those  who  tarry.  It  is  but  the 
inevitable  and  necessary  parting  of  friends 
and  relatives  for  a  little  period,  and  we  know 
that  the  shores  of  reunion  lie  just  beyond  the 
filmy  veil  of  the  future. 

"The  end  or  change  is  never  hastened  nor 
retarded  by  the  violation  of  Nature's  sacred 
laws.  There  are  but  few  partings  or  deaths  in 
the  earlier  periods  of  life.  They  go  with  joy- 
ful alacrity,  as  to  a  feast,  at  four  or  five  score, 
and  their  memory,  works  and  examples  cheer 
and  sustain  those  who  remain. 

"No;  we  have  no  physicians.  If,  perchance, 
some  law  of  Nature  is  violated  and  mortal  ail- 
ment ensues,  it  needs  no  specialist  to  discover 
that  fact,  or  n'comuunul  the  proper  method  of 


118  INTERMERE. 


rectifying-  it.  That  is  a  part  of  the  education 
of  all.  Literally,  we  neither  know  nor  care  to 
know  what  physic  is.  We  live  simply  and  in 
accordance  with  Nature's  laws,  and  disease, 
such  as  prevails  in  your  land  and  others,  is 
unknown  in  this,  and  has  been  for  ages.  Sci- 
ence and  scientific  discovery,  as  we  utilize  and 
employ  them,  have  freed  us  from  disease  and 
made  death  but  the  exchange  of  lives.  We 
know  more  than  we  care  to  tell  of  the  life  be- 
yond." 

He  ceased  abruptly  after  saying: 
"Tomorrow  you  will  be  the  guest  of  Remo, 
the    Curator  of  Useful    Mechanical    Devices. 
You  may  learn  much  from  him." 


VI. 

THE  SECRET  OF  INTERMERE 
PARTIALTA'^  REVEALED  TO  AN- 
DERTON,  AND  WHEN  HE  LEAST 
EXPECTS  IT  HE  IS  RESTORED 
TO  HIS  HOME  AND  KINDRED, 
MUCH  TO  HIS  REGRET. 


INTERMERE.  121 


VL 


THE  SECRET  OF  INTERMERE. 


THE  SECRET  of  Intermere— its  great  me- 
chanical secret — was  revealed  to  me,  but,  alas! 
only  in  part.  It  was  as  if  the  siin  be  pointed 
out  to  a  child  who  is  told  that  it  shines  and  is 
a  prime  factor  in  the  growth  of  all  forms  of 
life,  animal  and  vegetable. 

The  child  realizes  that  the  orb  of  day  shines, 
but  remains  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  the  proc- 
esses of  its  rays;  why  it  inspires  animals  and 
vegetation  with  life  and  growth,  and  produces 
the  prismatic  colors  of  the  rainbow. 

So  with  me.  I  know  the  fountain-head  or 
cause  that  gave  momentum  to  all  the  mech- 
anism of  the  land,  shortened  the  period  be- 
tween   germination  and  maturity  in  vegeta- 


122  INTERMERE. 


tion,  banished  fire  while  retaining  warmth, 
turned  the  night  into  a  season  of  beauty  equal- 
ing the  full  day,  kept  every  street  and  high- 
way free  from  debris,  prevented  foul  emana-^ 
tions,  with  their  contaminations,  and  did 
countless  other  things  which  our  own  scien- 
tists demonstrate  are  desirable  and  necessary, 
but  still  unattainable.  But  of  the  details,  of 
the  why  and  the  wherefore,  of  the  effects  and 
the  processes  by  which  so  many  different  re- 
sults emanated  from  the  same  apparent  cause, 
I  learned  nothing. 

One  morning,  after  a  season  of  delicious,  in- 
vigorating slumber,  as  I  walked  in  the  spa- 
sious  grounds  of  my  host,  the  Chief  Citizen  of 
the  Province — grounds  sweeter  and  fairer 
than  the  fabled  Gardens  of  Gulistan — I  saw  a 
fleet  of  Aerocars  approaching,  led  by  one  of 
the  most  magnificent,  and  by  far  the  largest, 
that  I  had  yet  seen.  It  could  not  have  been 
less  than  one  hundred  feet  in  length  and  twen- 


INTERMERE.  123 


ty  in  breadth  at  the  midway  point,  and  yet  it 
seemed  to  float  as  lightly  as  a  feather  in  the 
aerial  depths. 

When  almost  directly  overhead  the  fleet 
halted,  and  remained  stationary,  as  though 
firmly  anchored  to  some  immovable  substance, 
and  then  the  leading  craft  slowly  sank  to  the 
earth  at  my  feet,  as  lightly  as  you  have  seen 
a  bird  alight. 

It  was  thie  Aerocar  of  Remo,  containing  a 
score  of  people.  I  had  not  hitherto  met  Remo, 
the  Curator  of  Useful  Mechanical  Devices. 
However,  he  needed  no  introduction  to  me  or 
I  to  him.    The  recognition  was  mutual. 

He  came  forward  and  greeted  me  cordially, 
and  later  presented  me  to  his  fellow  voyagers, 
and  said: 

"I  know  you  are  anxious  to  learn  something 
of  the  motive  principle  of  our  mechanisms. 
That  I  shall  impart  to  you,  at  least  partially. 
Our  joui'iiey  will  begin  to  suit  your  conven- 


124  INTERMERE. 


ienee.    We  will  breakfast  en  route.'' 

I  hastened  to  say  my  adieux  to  the  Chief 
Citizen,  Alpaz,  and  the  members  of  the  house- 
hold, and  then  entered  the  Aerocar,  taking  a 
seat  near  Remo.  At  a  signal  to  the  pilot,  the 
craft  rose  as  lightly  and  majestically  as  it  had 
descended. 

I  looked  about  me  at  the  passengers,  ham- 
pers of  provisions,  culinary  utensils  and  table 
equipment,  and  estimated  that  the  Aerocar 
was  carrying  not  less  than  four  thousand 
pounds  of  dead  weight. 

''You  are  wondering  how  so  much  bulk  and 
weight  ascend  without  apparent  cause." 

I  assented  to  the  proposition. 

"When  you  are  at  home  and  see  an  inflated 
balloon  ascend,  carrying  a  man  weighing  one 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  with  seventy-five 
pounds  of  sand  ballast,  you  can  understand 
how  it  ascends?" 

-Readily." 


INTERMERE.  125 


"By  mechanical  contrivance  of  immense 
compartive  bulk,  aided  by  chemical  product, 
the  power  of  gravitation  is  suflSciently  over- 
come or  neutralized  that  a  disproportionately 
small  amount  of  weight  is  carried  into  the 
upper  air.  We  ascend  for  the  same  general 
reason,  the  resultant  of  a  greater,  a  different 
and  a  fixed  principle. 

"Our  pilot,  by  means  of  the  mechanical  and 
other  power  at  his  command,  neutralized  the 
attraction  of  gravitation,  and  without  the  aid 
of  any  other  appliance  arose,  carrying  a  weight 
of  more  than  four  thousand  of  your  pounds 
avoirdupois.  It  has  ascended  in  a  direct  or 
perpendicular  line,  despite  the  breeze,  which 
would  otherwise  have  carried  us  at  a  western 
angle.  I  will  have  the  pilot  produce  an  equi- 
librium, stoi)ping  all  movement." 

A  signal  was  given  the  pilot,  and.  after  a 
slight  manii)ulation,  it  stood  still. 

"Now  we  will  descend,  first  perpendicularly 


126  INTERMERE. 


and  then  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees.'' 

One  signal  and  one  manipulation,  and  the 
Aerocar  described  the  first  motion.  A  second 
signal  and  manipulation,  and  it  described  the 
other. 

''Now  we  will  ascend,  first  bv  the  reverse 
angle  and  then  by  the  perpendicular." 

Again  the  signals  and  again  the  manipula- 
tions, and  again  the  exact  movements  through 
space. 

''If  your  flying  machine  and  airship  builders 
could  do  that,  what  would  your  people  think?" 
''That  the  world  had  been  revolutionized." 
"But  the  world  will  not  be  thus  revolution- 
ized until  science  is  freed  of  gross  material- 
ism and  human  aspiration  becomes  something 
higher  than  selfish  greed,  commercialism,  war, 
conquest,  opulence,  and  the  despotisms  they 
engender.  You  must  expel  all  the  gods  with 
whom  you  most  closely  commune,  before  you 
may  commune  with  the  true  Ood  or  Supreme 


INTERMERE.  127 


Principle  of  tbe  Universe," 

In  the  meantime  the  Curator's  Aeroear  had 
rejoined  its  consorts,  and  we  floated  away  to 
the  northeast,  where  a  great  semicircle  of 
mountains  were  dinilv  outlined,  and  then  de- 
scended ui)on  a  city  looking  like  a  pearl  in  a 
semicircular  valley,  bisected  by  a  broad  river, 
spanned  with  l)ridges  at  short  intervals  as  far 
as  the  vision  reached. 

With  my  watch  I  had  timed  the  voyage.  It 
had  lasted  two  hours  and  thirty  minutes. 

"How  far  have  we  traveled?"  I  inquired  of 
Remo. 

"One  thousand  of  your  miles." 

"That  is  four  hundred  miles  to  the  hour; 
six  and  two-thirds  miles  each  minute." 

"The  speed  might  easily  have  been  doubled." 

My  amazement  was  unbounded,  but  I  did 
not  doubt  Remo's  statement  then.  Later,  I 
I  recognized  it  as  an  easy  possibility. 

Remo  detained  me  until  the  rest  of  the  com- 


128  INTERMERE. 


panj  had  left  the  Aerocar,  and  then  said  ab- 
ruptlT:  "You  would  learn  the  secret  of  the 
motive  principle  that  moves  our  mechanical 
devices  and  performs  other  oflQces  which  seem 
to  you  miraculous.  It  is  this:  It  is  the  electric 
current  which  we  take  direct  from  the  at- 
mosphere at  will — electricity,  which  is  the  life- 
giving,  life-preserving  and  life-promoting  prin- 
ciple, the  superior  and  fountain  of  all  law  af- 
fecting the  material  Universe  and  intervening 
space.  To  command  that  is  to  command  ev- 
erything. 

^'This  is  the  capital  of  my  Curatorship.  Here 
all  my  predecessors  have  served  the  Common- 
wealth; hither  all  my  successors  will  come. 
Here  every  mechanical  device  is  tested,  ap- 
proved or  rejected,  and  from  hence  their  pro- 
duction is  directed,  as  a  public  right,  in  every 
municipal  division  of  the  Commonwealth. 

''Nearly  every  monument  you  have  seen,  aa 
you   have  doubtless  noticed,  is  dedicated  to 


INTERMERE.  129 


some  Chosen  Son  of  Wisdom,  and  some  of 
them  date  back  tens  of  eentiiries.  Whoever 
makes  a  great  discovery,  such  as  taking  the 
electric  current  direct,  or  dividing  its  capabili- 
ties into  useful  and  necessary  directions,  or 
perfects  some  great  mechanism,  securing  the 
full  beneficence  of  the  current,  brings  it  here 
and  dedicates  it  to  the  Commonwealth  and  its 
sons  and  daughters.  Its  benefits  are  common 
to  all. 

"His  reward  is  that  he  is  elected  by  univc^'- 
sal  acclaim  as  the  Chosen  Son  of  Wisdom,  a 
monument  commemmorative  of  his  achieve- 
ment is  erected  at  once,  and  he  is  installed  in 
a  home  furnished  out  of  the  public  revenues, 
receives  a  stipend  of  fifty  or  five  cinque  media 
daily,  and  is  the  honored  guest  on  all  public 
and  private  occasions. 

"I  shall  show  you  many  of  our  devices;  some 
of  them  will  be  self-explanatory,  some  will,  to 
a  degree,  be  explained,  others  left  to  youi-  ron- 


130  INTERMERE. 


jectiiie,  and  for  obvious  reasous." 

\\'ith  this  he  led  me  through  a  huge  num- 
ber of  what  we  would  look  upon  as  diminutive 
manufacturing  establishments.  In  the  first 
one  visited  he  exhibited  to  me  two  crystalline 
elongated  globes,  the  size  of  an  egg  ea.ch,  con- 
nected by  a  small  tube  or  cylinder  of  the  same 
material  two  or  three  inches  in  length. 

The  globes  were  filled  with  a  whitish  sub- 
stance, or  granulation,  the  upper  intensely 
white,  the  lower  somewhat  shaded.  The  up- 
per one  was  fitted  with  a  movable  disk,  and 
could  be  opened  by  touching  a  lever.  A  clus- 
ter of  rather  coarse  wires,  apparently  an  amal- 
gam of  several  metals,  rose  above  the  granu- 
lated contents.  A  double  coil  of  wires,  of  a 
different  material  or  combination,  running  in 
opposite  directions,  filled  the  connecting  cylin- 
der, while  a  cluster  of  almost  imperceptibly 
fine  wires,  of  still  a  different  material  or  com- 
bination, projected    from  the    bottom  of  the 


INTERMERE.  131 


loAver  globe. 

These  globes  resembled  glass,  and  were,  to 
all  appearanees,  extremely  fragile.  Remo 
dashed  it  upon  the  hard  floor,  as  though  he 
would  destroy  it.  It  rebounded,  and  he  caught 
it  as  an  urchin  would  catch  a  rebounding  ball. 

"I  did  this,"  he  said,  ''to  show  you  that  these 
appliances  are  not  amenable  to  accident.  This 
is  the  accumulator  or  receiver  of  the  current." 

He  touched  the  lever  and  opened  a  small 
aperture  directly  over  the  cluster  of  wires  in 
the  upper  globe. 

"Hold  your  hand  below  the  lower  portion." 

he  said. 

I  complied,  and  instantly  my  hand  was 
moved  away  with  such  resistless  force  that  1 
was  turned  completely  around  and  sent  across 
the  room.  Remo  smiled  at  my  undisguised 
consternation,  and  said: 

"You  will  not  be  harmed.  What  you  expe- 
rienced was  the  flow  of  the  electric  current, 


132  INTERMERE. 


but  it  has  not  harmed  you.  It  is  physically 
harmless.  You  would  call  this  a  twenty-horse 
power  motor  in  your  country,  although  it  looks 
like  a  toy.  Take  it  and  handle  it  as  I  direct. 
You  may  handle  it  with  perfect  safety.  Place 
it  horizontally  near  that  fly-wheel  and  push 
the  lever." 

He  pointed  to  a  fly-wheel  scarcely  a  foot  in 
diameter,  with  seven  radiating  flanges  set 
slightly  at  an  angle.  I  did,  and  opened  the 
aperture.  In  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell  it 
the  wheel  was  revolving  at  a>  rate  of  speed  so 
high  that  it  seemed  like  a  solid  motionless  and 
polished  mirror. 

"Close  the  aperture,  go  to  the  side  in  which 
direction  it  is  revolving,  and  again  open  it  to 
the  current." 

I  did  so,  and  instantly  the  wheel  was  mo- 
tionless. 

He  pointed  to  a,  huge  block  of  granite,  which 
rested  on  a  metal  framework  a  dozen  inches 
above  the  floor,  and  said:  "Banish  all  nervous- 


INTERMERE.  133 


ness,  invert  the  accumulator,  and  hold  it  un- 
der the  center  of  the  block,  which  weighs  five 
of  your  tons." 

I  did  so,  and  it  slowly  rose  toward  the 
ceiling. 

"Close  the  aperture  slowly,  and  finally  close 
it  entirely." 

This  I  did,  and  it  settled  back  to  its  original 
place. 

"There,"  said  Remo,  "you  have  the  direct 
current  and  its  direct  application  to  machinery 
and  inert  bodies.  You  know  enough  about 
mechanics  to  understand  what  that  means. 
The  ascent  and  flight  and  movements  and  de- 
scent of  the  Aerocar;  the  running  of  the  Medo- 
car  and  the  sailing  of  the  Merocar,  are  not 
such  a  profound  mystery  to  you  as  they  were 
yesterday." 

He  conducted  mo  into  another  factory  and 
exhibited  a  number  of  accumulators,  each 
filled   with    appaiently  the  same    granulated 


134  INTERMERE. 


substance,  but  of  different  colors  and  admix- 
ture of  colors.  Remo  opened  the  apertures  of 
a  long  line  of  them  upon  a  wire  rack,  and  they 
flashed  into  brilliant  lamps  of  every  hue  and 
color  and  shade — a  light  that  was  as  steady 
a&  that  of  the  stars.  He  closed  them  one  by 
one,  showing  the  absolute  independence  of 
each. 

"Our  lamps,  with  which  we  beautify  the 
night,  are  no  longer  a  mystery  to  you — that  is, 
not  an  absolute  mystery," 

In  another  factory  he  exhibited  more  accu- 
mulators with  varicolored  materials  in  the 
globes.  He  opened  one  and  directed  its  power 
toward  an  ingot  of  metal.  It  melted  like  wax. 
Turning  its  force  upon  a  fragment  of  rock,  it 
was  transformed  into  the  ordinary  dust  of  our 
roadways.  With  another  he  turned  a  vessel 
of  water  into  a  solid  block  of  ice. 

''Our  topographical  construction,  our  culi- 
uarv  eronomv  and  the  abseute  of  tire  are  now 


INTERMERE.  135 


plainer  than  they  were." 

"But  how  do  you  achieve  all  these  different 
results  with  apparently  the  same  means?" 

"The  first  device  shown  you  is  the  primary; 
the  others  are  subsequent  discoveries.  By  the 
primary  medium  we  were  able  to  produce  or 
secure  the  electric  current  in  the  form  of  dy- 
namic power,  eminentl}'  tractable  and  harm- 
less with  ordinary  prudence.  New  combina- 
tions of  the  medium  gave  us  all  the  other  re- 
sults, at  intervals,  subsequent  to  the  original 
discovery.    And  the  field  is  not  exhausted." 

Remo  explained  that  the  crystalline  sub- 
stance in  the  upper  globe  of  the  accumulator 
induced  or  gathered  the  electric  current,  giv- 
ing it  controllable  direction  as  well  as  defined 
volume,  while  that  in  the  lower  determined 
its  significance  or  divisional  use. 

In  the  minuter  acumulators,  for  the  lamps 
only,  did  the  current  present  itself  in  the  form 
of  light,  spark  or  flame.     All  the  colors,  from 


136  INTERMERE. 


pure  white  to  deep  purple,  with  their  prismatic 
variations,  were  the  direct  result  of  their  dif- 
fering chemical  combinations  in  the  lower 
globe,  each  of  the  silk-like  wires  throwing  off 
countless  rays  of  unvarying  intensity  and 
steadiness,  but  gave  off  no  electric  phenomena 
or  effects. 

The  heat  accumulators  gave  moderate  or  in- 
tense heat,  according  to  the  chemical  combina- 
tions through  which  the  primary  current  pass- 
ed, but  there  was  neither  glow  nor  light-flash. 
So,  too,  the  cold  accumulators  gave  off  varying 
degrees  of  cold,  for  the  same  reason. 

In  none  of  them  was  there  either  the  electric 
shock  or  its  effects,  and  all  were  tractable  and 
free  from  danger  in  what  we  may  term  the 
electrical  sense.  The  dynamic  force  of  the 
primary  and  the  intense  heat  or  cold  of  the 
divisional  currents,  common  prudence  avoids. 
Still  it  would  be  easily  possible,  by  chemical 
combination,  to  produce  a  current  destructive 


INTERMERE.  137 


of  life  and  capable  of  annihilating  nations, 
without  hope  or  possibility  of  escape. 

•*Yoiir  own  scientists  know,''  said  Remo, 
"that  with  the  direct  current  all  that  you 
have  seen,  and  infinitely  more,  is  but  the  re- 
sult of  a  simple  process,  capable  of  infinite 
multiplication." 

"But  what  are  the  constituents  of  the  me- 
dium in  the  accumulator,  and  what  are  the 
formulas  of  the  various  combinations?" 

''If  you  knew  that  you  would  know  as  much 
as  we." 

This  was  the  nearest  a  jest  I  had  heard  in 
Intermere,  but  I  knew  from  the  character  of 
Remo's  speech  that  the  rest  of  the  secret  would 
remain  hidden  from  me. 

As  we  sat  at  his  table  later  he  said: 

''You  have  been  nearer  to  our  secret  than 
any  one  else  in  the  outer  world,  and  we  shall 
see  whether  the  seeds  will  grow  into  the  tree 


138  INTERMERE. 


of  Knowledge  and  produce  the  fruits  of  Wis- 
dom. Neither  your  people  nor  any  other  peo- 
ple could  be  trusted  with  this  secret  in  their 
present  moral  condition.  A  few  learned  men 
dependent u])on  the  rulers  in  one  nation, know- 
ing it,  could  and  would  plot  the  destruction 
and  exploitation  of  all  others.  The  sacrifice 
of  human  life  and  the  accumulation  of  human 
woe  and  misery  would  be  appalling, 

"If  your  leaders,  with  the  suddenly  awaken- 
ed hunger  for  conquest  and  dominion,  could 
literally  command  the  thunderbolts  and  con- 
trol the  elements  as  against  the  rest  of  the 
world,  they  would  sack  Chrislendom  in  the 
name  of  Liberty,  Hunmnity  and  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem,but  in  the  sjtirit  of  Mammon, Greed 
and  seltish  love  of  power  and  riches. 

"You  will  make  some  progress  in  discover- 
ies along  scientific  and  mechanical  lines,  but 
no  real  good  to  the  race  can  result  until  these 
discoveries    are    turned  to  a  nobler  purpose 


INTERMERE.  139 


than  that  of  seizing  commercial  siipremac}', 
subjugating  alien  and  unwilling  peoples, 
slaughtering  those  who  resist,  exploiting  those 
who  lay  down  their  arms,  gathering  wealth 
regardless  of  justice  and  the  rights  of  man- 
kind and  building  up  an  artificial  race  in  the 
form  of  a  ruling  class,  who  base  their  right  to 
exclusive  privileges  on  wealth  and  the  perver- 
sion of  every  principle  of  justice  and  the  Chris- 
tianity they  profess. 

"You  have  been  wondering  why,  with  our 
great  knowledge  and  achievements,  we  do  not 
go  forth  and  dominate  the  world.  What  would 
it  profit  us?  Could  we  find  anything  that 
would  contribute  to  our  enjoyments,  our  hopes, 
our  aspirations?    No. 

-Even  we  are  not  proof  against  the  paralyz- 
ing touch  of  deterioration.  We  pay  more 
heed  to  the  world's  history  than  do  the  nations 
and  peoples  who  made  tlitit  history,  during  the 
centuries,  flistory  is  but  the  lighthouse  which 


140  INTERMERE. 


which  warns  against  the  reefs  and  rocks  where 
countless  argosies  have  been  lost.  The  mari- 
ners who  sail  the  ships  of  state  dash  reckless- 
ly  upon  the  rocks  of  destruction,  despite  the 
friendly  warnings  of  the  dead  and  engulfed 
who  have  gone  before." 

Turning  to  lighter  themes,  Kemo  spoke  of 
the  various  economies  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and  explained  how  the  obstacles  which  con- 
front our  civilization  are  overcome.  Garbage 
and  all  debris,  for  instance,  are  disposed  of  by 
instantaneous  reduction  to  original  conditions, 
and  then  a  lecombination  and  distribution 
upon  the  grounds,  farms  and  gardens.  The 
sewage  question,  the  standing  menace  of  all 
dense  and  even  sparse  populations,  is  solved 
by  the  same  ])rocess  of  purification  and 
recombination.  This  work  is  constantly  per- 
formed under  the  eye  of  the  municipal  author- 
ities, and  under  fixed  rules  and  service.  Thus 
the  absolute  cleanliness  which  prevailed  ev- 


INTERMERE.  141 


erywhere  was  readily  explained. 

In  answer  to  my  query  why  Intermere  had 
so  long  escaped  discovery  from  navigators,  he 
said,  interrogatively: 

''Would  it  not  be  possible,  with  our  superior 
knowledge  and  wisdom,  to  put  their  reckoning 
at  fault  whenever  they  came  within  a  fixed 
sphere  of  proximity?" 

To  my  question  as  to  the  equability  of  the 
seasons,  the  absence  of  storms,  and  the  regu- 
larity of  the  descent  of  moisture  in  the  form 
of  gentle  rains,  he  said: 

"Do  not  imagine  that  our  scientific  knowl- 
edge stops  with  the  mere  discovery  of  the  di- 
rect electric  current  or  our  mechanical  de- 
vices." 

Nothing  further  could  I  elicit  from  him  or 
any  other  lutermerean  on  these  or  kindred 
subj(M'ts.  The  Book  of  Knowledge  had  been 
opened  and  apparently  closed. 

After  two  days'  stay  in  Remo's  capital  the 


142  INTERMERE. 


Aerocars  took  up  a  goodly  entourage,  and  we 
moved  softly  and  swifth'  to  the  Greater  City. 

There  Xamas  and  all  his  officials  awaited  us, 
along  with  every  lutermerean  of  both  sexes  1 
had  met  in  my  journeys,  as  well  as  every  Mu- 
nicipal Custodian  of  the  realm,  and  in  addition 
the  Chief  Citizens  of  the  fourteen  Provinces  I 
had  not  visited. 

A  reception  fete  was  given  me  in  the  chief 
temple  of  the  city,  hoary  with  age  and  instinct 
with  wisdom.  There  were  songs  and  music  by 
the  young  and  happy,  and  apropos  discourses 
by  the  older.  I  essayed  the  role  of  orator, 
thanked  my  entertainers  for  thieir  many  cour- 
tesies and  the  happy  hours  they  had  conferred 
upon  a  wanderer  in  a  strange  land.  The  after- 
noon and  evening  were  a  season  of  unalloyed 
happiness. 

As  I  dropped  into  slumber  in  the  house  of 
Xamas  I  soliloquized:  "This  kindness  and 
these  honors  seem   significant.     Perhaps  the 


INTERMERE.  143 


Intermereans  intend  to  adopt  me  into  all  their 
knowledge  and  wisdom.    Perhaps" 


I  felt  that  T  was  tossing  on  the  swell  of  the 
ocean.  Then  there  was  a  sensation  of  physical 
pain,  as  if  from  long  exposure  to  the  elements. 

So  keen  was  this  sensation  that  I  awoke 
fully,  started  up  and  looked  around  me.  It 
was  a  grayish  dawn,  purpling  in  lines  near  the 
hoi'izon.  Towering  above  me  I  saw  the  out- 
lines of  a  great  ship,  lying  at  anchor  and  lazily 
nodding  as  the  swells  swe])t  into  the  harbor. 

I  found  myself  in  one  of  the  individual  Mer- 
ocars,  intended  for  a  single  passenger,  but  the 
compai-tments  containing  the  accumulatory 
motors  had  been  removed  and  the  marks  of  re- 
moval deftly  concealed. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  finished  Merocars  of 
its  class  with  the  ex('e])tion  of  the  motoi',  con- 
structed entirely  of  prepared  wood,  resembling 
a  piece  of  wicker  work,  but  impervious  to  thie 


144  INTERMERE. 


sea,  and  floated  like  a  cork  or  a  feather. 

I  was  trying  to  determine  where  I  was  and 
how^  I  came  to  be  in  my  present  situation. 
Then  came  to  me  this  in  the  Language  of  Si- 
lence: 

"You  have  been  safely  delivered  to  those 
who  will  restore  3'ou  to  your  land  and  home. 
Discretion  is  always  commendable." 

I  knew  whence  this  thought  came,  and  soon 
the  increasing  light  showed  me  that  I  was  in 
the  harbor  of  Singapore,  lashed  with  a  silken 
cord  to  the  forechains  of  an  East  Indian  mer- 
chantman. 

To  my  infinite  regret  I  found  that  I  was  clad 
in  the  same  clothes  I  wore  when  the  Mistletoe 
went  to  the  bottom.  The  same  trinkets  and  a 
few  coins  and  the  other  accessories  were  still 
in  the  pockets. 

But  the  handsome  and  natty  garments  of 
Intermere  were  gone.  I  was  back  in  the  world 
just  as  I  left  it,  how  long  ago  I  could  not  tell, 


INTERMERE.  145 


for  the  memories  of  Intermere  seemed  to  cover 
a  decade  at  least,  and  I  estimated  that  those 
who  lived  to  one  hundred  enjoyed  a  thousand 
years  of  life. 

Thelookoutontheship  finally  discovered  me, 
and  shortly  after  I  and  my  curious  boat  were 
lifted  to  the  deck  and  became  the  center  of  a 
gaping  crowd. 

Asl could  not  accountfor  myself  reasonably, 
I  became  merely  evasive  and  did  not  account 
for  mj'self  at  all,  and  left  the  crew  and  pas- 
sengers equally  divided  as  to  whether  I  was  a 
lunatic  of  a  cunning  knave. 

Among  those  on  board  was  one  whose  pres- 
ence suggested  Intermere.  I  listened  and  ob- 
served, and  learned  that  he  was  the  Secretary 
of  a  native  Rajah  on  board  the  ship.  He  in- 
spected me  with  curious  disappointment.  The 
Merocar  he  seemed  to  worship  both  with  eyes 
and  soul. 

"Sell  it  to  him,  for  you  need  money." 


146  INTERMERE. 


That  was  Maros;  I  could  not  be  mistaken. 

The  Secretary  motioned  me  to  a  distant  part 
of  the  deck  and  said  abruptly: 

"I  will  give  you  five  thousand  rupees  for  the 
—for  the" 

"Merocar." 

He  started  as  though  shocked  by  a  bolt  of 
lightning, 

"I  dare  not  talk — I  cannot  remember — but  1 
dare  not  talk.  Will  you  sell  it  me  for  five 
thousand  rupees,  Sahib?  It  is  all  I  have,  but 
I  will  give  it  freely." 

"It  is  yours." 

He  went  below  and  soon  returned  with  the 
amount  in  bills  of  exchange  upon  the  bank  at 
Hong  Kong. 

He  carried  his  purchase  to  his  stateroom, 
amid  the  laughter  of  passengers  and  sailors, 
who  did  not  conceal  their  merriment  that  any 
man  would  pay  such  a  price  for  a  wicker  bas- 
ket, and  my  cunning  and  hypnotic  knavery 
were  thoroughly  established. 


INTERMERE.  147 


I  remained  a  few  days  in  Singapore,  con- 
verting my  bills  partly  into  cash  and  partly 
into  exchange  on  London  and  New  York. 

Sailing  later  to  Hong  Kong,  I  there  fell  in 
with  an  American  military  officer  whom  I 
knew,  and  who  gave  me  the  full  particulars  of 
Albert  Marshall's  death.  With  him  I  made 
arrangements  for  the  shipment  of  my  cousin's 
remains  to  his  old  home,  via  San  Francisco. 

Two  days  later  I  sailed  for  London,  and 
within  six  weeks  reached  New  York,  and  the 
home  of  my  childhood.  I  shall  not  describe 
the  meeting  with  my  mother,  nor  speak  of 
what  was  said  in  relation  to  the  strange  and 
brief  communications  which  passed  between 
us  months  before. 


148  INTERMERE. 


VII. 


LE  ENVOI. 


I  HAVE  READ  THE  FOREGOING. 
IT  IS  A  FAITHFUL  REPRODUC- 
TION OF  WHAT  I  WAS  ABLE  TO 
COMMUNICATE  TOUCHING  MY 
EXPERIENCES.  AND  YET  THE 
PICTURE  DRAWN  IS  FAINT, 
HAZY  AND  FAR  AWAY.  COM- 
PARED WITH  THE  BEAUTIFUL 
REALITY,  IT  IS  "AS  MOONLIGHT 
UNTO  SUNLIGHT,  AS  WATER 
UNTO  WINE."  G.  H.  A. 

Glenford,  190L 


>Sl^ 


i 


'5--  --  "« 

^-  t  ^  ^  t 

>f  -^  *  ^* 

1^  y.  ^  ^  4 

•^         ^--        ^.-  -*-        i* 

•^i-'  i*  -i>,  -y  "f.  ^ 

*r  ^  ^^  ^  ^ 

^k  ^  ^  % 

Ih-  ^r^  iF^  t|V~         ^T^  ^I^ 

*^        ^.       4       ^       ^       4 


>f        -^       -*-  "iH        ^h.        4. -^^fw        ^       ^         .^ 

^.,     i-        ^  -<-        -"if^        if.        ♦^        -^        ^        ^ 

^*|^.^.  ;^^^.  , --^  -t^       -^        ^f-        ♦•        -h       i*-       '^ 

"'-*■-    '"^^   -""  "  --        --        -^       ^       >^        ^        ^ 


r 


<Mim 


mmiimim 


